Late basketball icon left impact on local players

DJ Immler, now a Dalton senior, saw Kobe Bryant in action in 2009 during a vacation with his family in California. (PHOTO PROVIDED)

Dalton High School senior Makenna Geiser didn’t believe at first the news last week that basketball legend Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter crash.
The Lady Bulldogs point guard had looked up to the five-time NBA champion and retired Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard since childhood.
“I was shocked when I heard Kobe had died,” Geiser said. “I thought someone was playing a sick prank.”
Bryant, 41, and eight others died Jan. 26 after the helicopter they were riding in crashed into a mountain that foggy morning in southern California.

Read the complete story in the Feb. 5, 2020 edition of The Dalton Gazette & Kidron News.