Kawhi says he talked to Kobe about helicopter commuting, had same pilot

Kawhi Leonard said Wednesday that he had spoken to Kobe Bryant about commuting around Southern California by helicopter, and had flown frequently with the pilot involved in Sunday's fatal crash.

"I talked to (Bryant) about it before our transition to playing in L.A.," Leonard told reporters. "Just seeing how he got back and forth from Newport (Beach), and he said he was doing it for about 17 years or so."

The Los Angeles Clippers star said the pilot, Ara Zobayan, was reliable and well-liked.

"Great guy, super nice," Leonard said. "He was one of the best pilots. That is a guy who you ask for to fly you from city to city. It's just surreal still ... the whole situation, this whole program, the setup, how (Bryant) was traveling back and forth was the same way I was getting here from San Diego."

Leonard owns a home in the San Diego area, which is approximately 120 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

"He (would) drop me off and say he is about to go pick up Kobe, or ... he'll just be like, 'I just dropped Kobe off, and he said hello.' Vice versa," Leonard said. "So it's a crazy interaction. He's a good dude, and I'm sorry for everybody."

When asked if he'll be less inclined to commute by helicopter now, Leonard said the tragedy is still too raw.

"The things that you hear, you don't know what's real yet," Leonard said. "I can't really speak on it. I don't know. I don't know yet. It's a lot of thoughts in my head."

As a Los Angeles native, Leonard grew up watching Bryant and said they were friends for about seven years. He added that he and all of L.A. is still deep in the grieving process.

"It's sad every day," he said. "You know, you kind of feel like life isn't real once you start seeing these little monuments or the pictures that people are putting up with his face and the year he was born and the year he died. It's not all come together yet."