FORT WORTH, Texas _ Since Kobe Bryant died, anyone who ever shared a moment with him immediately went to those experiences, which for TCU women's basketball coach Raegan Pebley meant just scrolling through her phone.
"I have a picture and he and I are standing together watching his daughter's team practice," Pebley said. "There is a girl shooting in the background, and it's Gigi."
Bryant died along with his daughter, Gigi, and seven other people on Sunday morning in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif. They were all going to a girls basketball game.
Pebley spent some time with Bryant in the summers of 2018 and '19. Pebley was working a small basketball clinic at Vanguard University in Southern California when their paths crossed.
Because his life ended far too soon, he was unable to broaden a part of his legacy that Pebley witnessed. Because he had daughters of his own who played basketball, Bryant was a fierce advocate for women's basketball.
Kobe Bryant would have been a towering spokesperson not just for the WNBA, but for girls playing basketball everywhere
"He was so excited about what was happening whether it was the WNBA or in college," Pebley said. "He was not there to change it. He was there to just enjoy it and help it. He was doing a lot in affirming. He loved he product already.
"I would say in my time with him I got to see him as a dad who knew a lot about basketball. He wasn't a basketball player who was a dad. From that moment, that was how I see him: As a dad. It was so real and pure and his love(for his daughter)."
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