Smokey Robinson Remembers Late ‘Friend’ Kobe Bryant And Daughter Gianna: ‘Losing Him Broke My Heart’

Smokey Robinson is mourning the loss of Kobe Bryant. At the 2020 Grammy Awards, the music legend told Access Hollywood’s Sibley Scoles that the fatal helicopter crash that killed both Bryant and Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna especially affected him as a father. “He was a nice young man. He was my friend,” Smokey reflected. “And more so – I don’t know how this is going to sound to people – but more so than thinking about what happened with him, I think of him as a dad and his baby being on that helicopter. My god, that had to be horrible. That broke my heart. Just losing him broke my heart. But as a dad myself, to know that? My god.”