Rick Fox says the rumors he had died on the helicopter with Kobe Bryant Sunday "shook" his family ... with Kenny Smith saying he exploded into tears when he found out Fox was alive.
"It was hard to deal with," Fox said on TNT's "Inside the NBA" special Tuesday night. "It shook a lot of people in my life."
Shortly after Kobe's chopper went down in Calabasas this weekend ... reports began to swirl that Fox -- Bryant's ex-teammate -- was on-board with the NBA legend in the fatal crash.