Gianna Bryant dreamed of following in her father’s footsteps and one day becoming a professional basketball player. On Sunday those dreams were shattered, when the helicopter she was travelling in crashed in Calabasas, California, killing all nine onboard, including her father, Kobe Bryant.
The father and daughter were on their way to Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks to take part in a tournament for young players on Sunday, according to the New York Times. Gianna, aged 13, was due to play in the tournament and Bryant was going to coach, CNN said.
Gianna, the second of Bryant’s four daughters, shared her father’s love of the game. She hoped one day to play for the University of Connecticut and make it to the Women’s National Basketball Association.
Bryant himself had described her as “something else” when she is on the court, and recently comparisons had been made between her skills and those of her father.
Since he retired in 2016, following a hugely successful 20-year NBA career spent entirely with the LA Lakers, Bryant had been coaching “Gigi’s” middle-school basketball team.
The time spent on court with his daughter had revived his passion for the game, he told the BET network two weeks ago.
“It wasn’t me sitting there, you know as an athlete or a player or something like that, and you know it’s like about me, and I don’t like that. It was her, she was having such a good time,” Bryant said.
Over the past few months the father and daughter were often spotted courtside watching NBA games. Bryant also shared clips of the pair playing basketball on Instagram.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said: “He was generous with the wisdom he acquired and saw it as his mission to share it with future generations of players, taking special delight in passing down his love of the game to Gianna.”
In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, the star talked about Gianna’s passion for the sport.
“The best thing that happens is when we go out and fans would come up to me and she’ll be standing next to me,” Bryant said, “and they’ll be like, ‘You’ve gotta have a boy, you and V gotta have a boy. You gotta have somebody to carry on your tradition, the legacy.
“She’s like, ‘I got this’,” Kobe Bryant said. “I’m like, ‘that’s right’,” he went on. “Yes, you do, you got this.”
