Mercury star Diana Taurasi delivers heartfelt tribute.
Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi was somber and at times emotional in a five-minute tribute to Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi at a public memorial in their honor Monday in Los Angeles.
The WNBA career scoring leader also lightened the mood briefly, taking a jab at Los Angeles Lakers’ star LeBron James.
“Who else has a turnaround fadeaway jumper at 11?” Taurasi asked about Gigi before a full house at the Staples Center. “LeBron’s barely got it today.”
Taurasi, 37, talked about growing up in Los Angeles and emulating Bryant, who died at 41 with 13-year-old Gigi and seven others in a helicopter crash Jan. 26.
“I was a lanky awkward freshman in high school, obsessively shooting night after night in my driveway,” she said. “On the nights the Lakers played, I wouldn’t miss a second of the game. Every timeout, every commercial, I’d run to the front yard to imitate my favorite Laker, Kobe.”
She called herself the White Mamba, playing off Bryant’s nickname, and said, “He made it okay to play with an edge that borderlined crazy.”
Taurasi credited the Mercury’s third WNBA championship in 2014 to her ending every workout with the Kobe game-winner: “Three hard dribbles going right. Left foot plant pivot. Swing right leg through, elevate square up. Follow through. Five in a row and I got to go home.”
Kobe and Gigi and others on her Mambas team came to a Mercury practice in May 2019 while in Phoenix for an AAU tournament. In recounting that occasion, Taurasi paused to maintain her composure.
“I always remember the look on Gigi’s face,” Taurasi said.
“It was a look of excitement. A look at belonging. A look of fierce determination.”
She said Gigi “represents the future of women’s basketball. A future where a young woman aspires to play in the WNBA. The same way I wanted to be a Laker.”
Taurasi, who has a soon to be 2-yearold son Leo, also spoke directly to Bryant’s wife Vanessa and daughters Natalia, Bianka and Capri.
“As a daughter, a sister wife and a mother, we embrace Vanessa, Natalia, Bianka and Capri. We promise to carry Gigi’s legacy.”
Taurasi closed speaking in Spanish. “Kobe,