"You were and will continue to be an inspiration to this world and drive people to follow their dreams with passion and conviction."

Dante Exum soaked up Bryant's advice on practice courts south of LA when he was an 18-year-old preparing for the NBA Draft.

"What he basically said to me was, 'There's going to be a lot of off-court distractions and how you handle those and focus on basketball is how long you'll stay in the league'," Exum told AAP in 2014.

"He said to have fun at some point because I'm still young but just know what your goals are and why you are here."

Melbourne basketballers Dejan and Ivana Vasiljevic fell in love with the game after watching Bryant playing in the NBA Finals.

Vasiljevic is playing basketball at the University of Miami Hurricanes where he is a senior (final year) guard who is tipped to play professionally later this year.

When he heard the news, his mind turned back to 2009 when his sister Ivana, who plays in Melbourne, first saw Bryant play and decided she would play basketball.

Dejan, known as DJ, followed her into the local competition but missed out on Bryant's number 24 singlet.

"Ivana got 24, she joined up first, I had to settle for 34," DJ said.

"We'd run around the house shooting stuff in the garbage yelling 'Kobe for the win', and we'd even mimic some of his shots in the backyard. But the most important thing that stuck with my sister and I was his work ethic."

Bryant's appeal was global and he was one of the first vocal supporters of the WNBA.

Bryant told The Age in 2012 "everyone" rated Jackson in the top-three women's players of all time and after his retirement in 2016 he attended more and more WNBA games stating the likes of Diana Taurasi could play in the NBA.

Jackson said she was heartbroken for Bryant's family. "I feel like his legacy will be felt across men's and women's basketball for what he did for the women's game.

"You see the NBA players now supporting the women's game. They are helping us pave the way for the next generation."

Australian great David Andersen recalled with warmth the reception he received from Bryant when Andersen played in the NBA with New Orleans Hornets and Houston Rockets.

Andersen, who now plays with the NBL's Illawarra Hawks, will never forget trading trash talk with Bryant in Italian.

Bryant spent part of his childhood in Italy while his dad played as an import and Andersen became fluent while playing in Europe.

"I instigated it," Andersen recalled on Monday.

"He looked at me sideways and went back at me in Italian and I went back at him.

"I did it again each time we played. He warmed to that. He was a very cultured person."

Before the Australian Boomers made the medal rounds in Rio, Bryant starred as Team USA knocked them out in Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

Perhaps that relentless competitiveness washed off on the team's young stars like Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Joe Ingles and others who would go on to long NBA careers.

"I vividly remember London as he had an unbelievable game against us and put us down," Andersen said.

"The guys studied those players and how they went about their business."

Australian basketball great Andrew Gaze said the circumstances of the crash, with the helicopter bound for Bryant's academy where his daughter was due to play in a tournament, would hit home with thousands of basketball families.