Bryant, a five-time NBA champion in two decades with the Los Angeles Lakers, died Sunday aged 41 in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles that claimed nine lives in all, including Bryant's daughter Gigi. "Kobe was a trailblazer, someone I looked up to my entire childhood wanting to be like him, wanting to hit last-second shots like him," said Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns. In pre-game introductions, Detroit Pistons players wore jerseys with only the numbers 8 and 24, but they lacked Kobe's magic on the court, falling to visiting Cleveland 115-100.