re: Biggest sports deaths

Earnhardt’s was big but let’s not kid ourselves. Earnhardt did not have the following nationally and especially globally that Kobe has. This is right below Clemente in my opinion.

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Yeah during an event also adds a lot of significance to it. Part of why Earnhardt was so huge. Hank gathers is a big one to me.

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Yeah, I wasn't a huge Kobe fan because of the Lakers but I recognize his significance. I don't think anything will ever top Earnhardt because of his stature and accomplishments, it happened in the biggest race of the season, on the last lap, and just why it happened.

But I guess Kobe's passing is the closest thing since then that I can think of.

ETA: Just thinking of that SI cover: Death in the Fast Lane. Man that was rough, I was 21 at the time. 1.5 hours away from the race, planned on being there but Navy obligations threw it off by 1 day.

As far as shocking sports death that were stories across sports and outside of sports, I would say the death of Dale Earnhardt. At that time, NASCAR was right there with the NFL in viewership numbers. Earnhardt's death was a complete gut punch to the NASCAR community, and the impact of his death is still felt in the NASCAR community today. The NBA is obviously bigger world wide than NASCAR is, so Kobe's death will have more international attention. That said, I think, in terms of the impact that it had on fans and the absolute shock it brought, Earnhardt's death is the most comparable.

As far as a death that was felt world wide, I have to turn to the death of another auto racing legend: Ayrton Senna. Senna was a Formula One legend, he was at the top of his game, and was already at legend status before his death. His funeral procession in his home city of Sao Paulo, Brazil was attended by over a million people.

Drazen Petrovic has to be up there.

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NASCAR was above the NFL when Dale died

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Yeah, I think you're correct. Drives the point home even more.

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Yeah, Diana's death is still affecting the royal family to this day.

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Kobe's death hit all American sports fans like a punch to the gut. Diana's death did that to suburban moms in every country in North and South America as well as Western Europe.

Senna and Earnhardt are so different from this imo because, while its rare these days, people dying in auto racing isn't unheard of. It's inherently super dangerous. Motorsport is so much safer BECAUSE of the changes made following those deaths.


A 41 year old living legend dying on a routine helicopter flight is so shocking.



Just different for me.

In 1949, the top Italian soccer club Torino (Grande Torino) was entirely wiped out in a plane crash.

At the time, they were four time defending Italian champs and in first place with four matches remaining and ultimately declared champions again.

Torino players also made up 10/11 of the Italian national team starting lineup. It took Italy two decades to reclaim international prominence. Italy had won the last two world cups played before the crash (WWII intervened).

this one, IMO, was the most emotional for me.... having played basketball for a majority of my youth and young adult life, this death was of a superstar, that came up in the era of when i was really dug in deep in basketball culture... and that it was so unexpected, and while he's still so young and was having such a positive influence in his post-playing career, and adding the fact that one of his daughters was also killed...

yeah, this one takes the cake, unfortunately...

As was senna