Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue spoke with reporters about coping with former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant's death nearly one year after the NBA legend died in a helicopter crash.

Lue talked about trying to move forward.

"Just being able to try to get past it," Lue said. "I don't really deal with death well. I always try to forget about it. It is just something that is tough for me, especially [with] someone I was so close to... I took down all the pictures in my room, in my house, I don't have them in my office."

Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others died in the crash, which occurred on Jan. 26, 2020, in Calabasas, California.

Lue and Bryant played together on the Lakers from 1998 to 2001, winning a pair of NBA championships. Bryant went on to win three more titles for L.A. during a 20-year career that featured 18 All-Star Game appearances, 11 All-NBA First Team nods and the 2007-08 NBA MVP award.

Lue continued speaking with reporters about grieving for his friend:

"I got to get over it because [he's] such a great guy, great person, you want to be able to celebrate him," Lue said.

"You want people to come in your office and say, 'Oh man, how was it with Kobe?' You want them to ask those questions so he can continue to live on, which he is going to do."

Lue mentioned that Clippers stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George frequently ask Lue about Bryant in hopes of soaking up more knowledge about one of the NBA's greatest all-time players.

"They always want to know how Kobe was, what he did, how he worked, how would Kobe react to this," Lue said.

"They always ask those questions all the time. They just want to know so much about him. It's tough sometimes talking about it but it's good that those guys respect him and look up to what Kobe has done as a player, a person and a businessman."

That information may be particularly useful to Leonard. Lue notably told reporters in December that he planned to use Leonard like Bryant in some triangle offense sets, much like Phil Jackson did for the Lakers.

The Clips head coach also mentioned that he does not have any pictures of him and Bryant in his office at the team facility but that he had to "get through that."

"I am going to just try to do it," Lue said.

"He is always going to live through me, through the NBA, through a lot of people. So just try to come to my office and seeing a picture of me and Kobe I think would be tough.

"But there's got to be a point where I got to get through that, continue to celebrate his life and what he has meant to me and so many other people."

Like many of Bryant's family, friends and fans, Lue, who was a Clippers assistant coach this time last year, took the crash particularly hard.

Then-Clippers head coach (and now Philadelphia 76ers head coach) Doc Rivers recalled a moment that occurred during the team's game against the Orlando Magic later that evening.

"Ty Lue was really struggling. You forget that Ty Lue was his teammate as well and I look over at Ty during the game and he's bawling. A lot of emotion tonight, it really was a tough night. Just a tough night."

The two notably got after each other in practice, with Lue once recalling a story to reporters in 2016 about how the notoriously competitive Bryant was after he blocked the legend's shot in practice.

"Long story short is, it was a game point and [Bryant] drove baseline and I was at the elbow. And he drove baseline and I went down the lane and I pinned his dunk against the glass. He tried to dunk it and I blocked it against the glass. We came down, Devean George made a layup for game and Brian Shaw went, 'Ahhh, he blocked you!' He went crazy. Kobe wanted to fight me at first and then, second, he wanted to play one-on-one after practice."

"He was so mad and then, after that, it was just, every day we stepped onto the court, he just went after me every single day," Lue added.

Bryant offered a response to Lue's story:

Lue (then leading the Cleveland Cavaliers' bench in 2016) coached against Bryant's Lakers twice during that year. The Cavs won both times, but Bryant's final game against Cleveland saw him go 11-of-16 for 26 points.

For now, Lue's Clips are fighting Bryant's old team for Western Conference supremacy. Both teams lead the West (and the NBA) with matching 12-4 records.