“Continuing to move the game forward @KingJames,” Bryant tweeted. “Much respect my brother … #33644.”

Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash Sunday in Calabasas, California. He was 41.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said there were no survivors in the crash, which is still in an ongoing investigation.

Bryant played 20 seasons for the Los Angeles Lakers, and was third on the league’s all-time scoring list with 33,643 points before Saturday. James entered Saturday night’s game with the Lakers, just 17 points shy of Bryant.

James made a layup to move into third all-time with 33,644, which prompted Bryant’s final tweet in his young life.

Bryant won five NBA titles with the Lakers, two NBA Finals MVP honors, one regular-season MVP award (2008), and two Olympic gold medals playing for Team USA.

Bryant had a special bond with James, who looked up to Bryant and honored him even on Saturday.

“I’m just happy to be in any conversation with Kobe Bryant, one of the all-time greats to ever play,” James told ESPN.

Even during the special night for James on Saturday night against the Philadelphia 76ers, James wrote the words “Mamba 4 Life” on his basketball sneakers.

James was a teenager when he first met Bryant at a basketball camp, and he recalled how much Bryant meant to him.

“I was just listening. I was just trying to soak everything up I could,” James said. “I remember one thing he said was that if you want to try and be great at it, and want to be one of the greats, you’ve got to put the work in.”

Bryant hailed from Philadelphia and made the leap from high school to the NBA. James was the last to make a high school-to-NBA leap before the league changed its rules disallowing the jump. James said following Bryant’s path has been a pure journey, and that breaking the record in Philadelphia was bittersweet.

“There’s just too much. The story is just too much,” James said Saturday night. “The story doesn’t make sense. Make a long story short, now I’m here in a Lakers uniform, in Philadelphia where he’s from.”

Bryant is the only player in NBA history to have two different numbers (No. 8 and No. 24) retired by one franchise, and his 81 points scored against the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006, is the second-highest single-game point total, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points scored on March 2, 1962.

Updated 5:18 PM ET.