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‘This can’t be real’: How Celtics players, past and present, reacted to Kobe Bryant’s death

Current and former Celtics mourned the loss of one of the team’s biggest on-court rivals, Kobe Bryant, after his tragic death in a helicopter crash Sunday.

Bryant, 41, who was one of nine people, along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, killed in the crash outside Los Angeles, was one of the faces of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the early 2000s. He dropped the 2008 NBA Finals to Boston before hoisting the Finals MVP trophy after a win over the Celtics two years later.

Boston’s Big 3 of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen took to social media to share their reactions to the news.