‘My story began in this town’: Kobe Bryant mourned in Italy, where he learned to play basketball

Five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant appears in Milan in 2011. Bryant, who spent part of his childhood in Italy, was one of nine people killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. (Luca Bruno/AP)

The global basketball legend spent more than seven years as a child in Italy, including in Reggio Emilia, after his father moved to the country to play professional basketball. Italy was where Bryant learned to shoot layups on child-sized basketball hoops, where he learned to speak Italian in school, and where, Bryant has said, “my dream began.” MORE