Flowers. There were so many flowers.
And candles whose fragrance competed with bouquets that had been lovingly placed in makeshift memorials along 11th Street, outside Staples Center, and in huge mounds across the street at Xbox Plaza at L.A. Live.
There were balloons and jerseys, smiling teddy bears and scuffed basketballs. But the gut punches were delivered by notes that had been written on paper, cardboard, or greeting cards. Prayerful, adoring or sorrowful, they reflected the jumbled emotions fans are experiencing as they come to grips with the Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Sunday alongside his daughter Gianna and seven other people who were bonded by basketball.