But on Sunday, with just two days to go before the season opener, there was somewhere else Mr. Altobelli wanted to be: the basketball gym.

His daughter, Alyssa, was scheduled to play in the youth tournament on Mr. Bryant’s team, the Mambas, and Mr. Altobelli didn’t want to miss it. To avoid an 80-mile drive in traffic, the family hitched a helicopter ride with Mr. Bryant, a coach and fellow parent who had become a friend.

“I don’t know how you’d say what he was more committed to, the game or his family,” Tim Matz, a friend and pitching coach at Orange Coast College, said of Mr. Altobelli.

Mr. Altobelli, 56, died in the crash, along with his wife, Keri, 46, and his youngest daughter, Alyssa, 14, the college confirmed in a statement.

Mr. Matz had just finished golfing in Palm Springs when he got a call about the crash. “Oh my God,” he thought. He knew his friend, who was known as “Alto,” had planned to be on board.

“I called Alto right away, and it went straight to voice mail,” said Mr. Matz, 66, who began calling friends and family members until he reached Mr. Altobelli’s adult son, J.J.

“He was just distraught,” Mr. Matz recalled. “He had just heard the news.”

Mr. Altobelli, who was preparing for his 28th season as the head coach of the Pirates, “had a very uncanny ability to make you feel like family,” Mr. Matz said. Keri Altobelli had recently taken over a family business, and Alyssa was making her own way as a basketball player in a family of baseball fans. She dreamed of attending the University of Oregon, Mr. Matz said.