The Lakers' Kobe Bryant drives to the basket on the Boston Celtics' Paul Pierce, right. Bryant scored 43 points as the Lakers cruised past the Celtics in Boston.

Multiple reports, including one from The Associated Press and ESPN.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski, have indicated that NBA legend Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash on Sunday afternoon in California.

The news rocked the sports world, and people from all walks of life, and across all sports, hit social media to pay tribute to Bryant and mourn his passing.

That included several Kansas basketball players.

Tweeted KU point guard Devon Dotson,

in two separate Tweets three minutes

apart: “Plz plz plz no.” And “This

cannot be real… no way no way.”

Freshman Jalen Wilson posted a black

and white photo of Bryant walking

toward the basket, with the caption,

“Mamba Mentality Forever… RIP.”

Bryant’s nickname and the brand he had built while conducting all of his post-basketball business endeavors was The Black Mamba.

Silvio De Sousa also posted two

separate times, with the first simply

saying, “No no no.” The second Tweet

read, “I’m hurttttt… No way KOBE is

gone.”

Freshman Christian Braun, 16 hours earlier, had ReTweeted what will go down as Bryant’s final post, a congratulatory message to James sent out to his 15 million followers.

“Continuing to move the game forward

@KingJames,” it began. “Much respect

my brother #33644.”

The hashtag referenced James’ updated point total, which moved him one point in front of Bryant into third place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

Kansas coach Bill Self had not been around Bryant much, but it was clear from his reaction that Self was well aware of Bryant’s impact on basketball, both during his 20-year career and after.

“I grew up idolizing Larry (Bird) and

Magic (Johnson) and our players, since

I’ve been here, have grown up

idolizing Kobe,” Self told the

Journal-World. “Everyone respected his

talent, competitive spirit and the

difference he made, and was going to

make, in peoples’ lives moving

forward. A very sad time for so many

and everyone that follows our sport.”

Former KU great and longtime Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce, who waged countless battles with Bryant during his career, simply Tweeted an emoji of a sad face, before adding in a separate Tweet, “This is not real right now.”

Another notable Tweet came from former KU center and current NBA superstar Joel Embiid. It read:

“Man, I don’t even know where to

start. I started playing ball because

of KOBE after watching the 2010

Finals. I had never watched ball

before that and that Finals was the

turning point of my life. I WANTED TO

BE LIKE KOBE. I’m so FREAKING SAD

right now!!!! RIP LEGEND.”

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1221530103714324482

Kobe Bryant is among those dead in a helicopter crash outside Los Angeles, a source confirms to ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 26, 2020