'There Aren't Enough Words to Describe Our Pain,' Kobe Bryant's Wife Says

“My girls and I want to thank the millions of people who’ve shown support and love during this horrific time,” Bryant wrote. “Thank you for all the prayers. We definitely need them. We are completely devastated by the sudden loss of my adoring husband, Kobe — the amazing father of our children; and my beautiful, sweet Gianna — a loving, thoughtful, and wonderful daughter, and amazing sister to Natalia, Bianka, and Capri.”

Bryant also said she was “devastated for the families who lost their loved ones Sunday, and we share in their grief intimately.” Earlier in the day, she changed the default picture on her Instagram to one of Kobe and Gianna.

“There aren’t enough words to describe our pain right now. I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved,” Bryant continued. “We were so incredibly blessed to have them in our lives. I wish they were here with us forever. They were our beautiful blessings taken from us too soon.” She added, “I just wish I could hug them, kiss them and bless them. Have them here with us, forever.”

Bryant concluded her post by urging those to donate to the MambaOnThree Fund, set up to “help support the other families affected by this tragedy.”

Los Angeles stands ready to accommodate thousands of mourners.

Kobe Bryant was born in Philadelphia and spent much of his youth in Italy, but he got to Los Angeles as fast as he could. Southern California gave him his glittering 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, his life with his wife, Vanessa, and their four daughters, his post-NBA career in coaching, and even an Oscar.

His adopted home stood ready to offer its support this week, as his family took on the grueling task of making plans to say goodbye to Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, who were among nine people killed when a helicopter plummeted into the foggy hills of Calabasas, California, on Sunday.

“Laying him to rest will be something which we are here, ready to help support the family however, wherever and whenever,” Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles has said.

It took two days to recover all nine bodies at the site of the crash, and the details of any funeral plans were still being worked out Wednesday. Any public memorial is likely draw thousands of mourners from across the city and around the country.

Bryant, a practicing Catholic, spent some of his last moments at his church, Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Newport Beach, California.

“He was there to reflect and pray” and left shortly before the 7 a.m. Mass, said Tracey Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Orange. She said the diocese was “respecting the privacy of the family” and had not been involved in any funeral discussions as of Wednesday.

Catholic funerals typically include a full Mass at a church, followed by a burial, an option that could be a possibility for a private goodbye. But if there is a public memorial service, a sports venue in the area might be needed to host.

Staples Center, which previously hosted funerals for Michael Jackson and rapper Nipsey Hussle, is where Bryant played as a Los Angeles Laker. The venue can hold about 20,000 people. A representative for the Staples Center said she could not comment or discuss funeral plans Wednesday.

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The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, home to the University of Southern California Trojans, is an alternative to Staples Center. It is among the largest venues in Southern California and can hold more than 77,000 people.

In a statement, the bishop in Orange County, Timothy Freyer, remembered Bryant “as a committed Catholic who loved his family and loved his faith.”

“Kobe would frequently attend Mass and sit in the back of the church so that his presence would not distract people from focusing on Christ’s Presence,” he said.

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Shaquille O’Neal grieves in emotional appearance: ‘I lost a little brother.’

LeBron James said he was “heartbroken and devastated.” Michael Jordan said he was “in shock over the tragic news.”

But one basketball player will forever be associated with Kobe Bryant, sometimes even mentioned in the same breath: his friend, rival and former Los Angeles Lakers teammate, Shaquille O’Neal.

The two formed a Lakers duo that was dynamic, at times tense and widely acknowledged as one of the top tandems in basketball history, delivering three consecutive championships for the Lakers before O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat. The pair — who have their own Wikipedia entry called the “Shaq-Kobe feud” — eventually reconciled, to the point that O’Neal told Bryant’s daughters to call him “Uncle Shaq.”

In an emotional appearance on TNT on Tuesday, O’Neal shared that it felt like a “stabbing” in the heart when he learned that a helicopter crashed near Calabasas, California, on Sunday, killing Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven other people.

“Haven’t felt the pain that sharp in a while,” O’Neal said, adding, “I lost a little brother.”

Emotion welled up in his voice throughout the appearance, but when a fellow sportscaster tried to offer him a break, O’Neal stopped him and pressed on.

“I think a lot of times we take stuff for granted,” said O’Neal, who recently lost his sister to cancer and lamented that he would never be able to joke with Bryant at his Hall of Fame ceremony.

“It definitely changes me,” O’Neal said. “I work a lot, you guys know. I work probably more than the average guy. But I just really have to now take time and call and say, ‘I love you.’”

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The helicopter descended quickly before the crash.

The helicopter carrying Bryant and others on their way to a youth basketball tournament fell at a rate of more than 33 feet per second and slammed into the hill in a “high-energy impact crash,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The helicopter had climbed to 2,300 feet before plummeting and may have missed clearing the top of the hill by 20 to 30 feet, Jennifer Homendy, a board member of the NTSB, said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

It is not clear why the helicopter fell at such a fast rate, which experts said was too fast for a standard landing.

Gregory Feith, a former senior air safety investigator for the NTSB, said Wednesday that the speedy fall of the helicopter could indicate that it had stalled before dropping to the ground, possibly because the pilot had tried to quickly pull up when he saw the approaching hill.

The helicopter was traveling forward about 152 mph just before it crashed, according to radar data published online by FlightAware.

Photographs from the scene, published by the NTSB, showed several heaps of tangled metal sitting on the side of the hill Tuesday. Investigators recovered an iPad and a cellphone from the site, Homendy said, and had loaded pieces of the crashed helicopter onto a truck to move to a secure location.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .