Memorial
has made its stock cars — had not been seen until last Monday night when they were placed around Newman’s car.
“If you look at our history before, (shielding) was certainly with the most dire situation,” O’Donnell told AP. “I think what we learned after the Aric Almirola incident and all the footage that is out there was not really fair to the driver. I don’t know if we can 100% stop that in the future, so I think you could see us be more liberal to that in the future.”
O’Donnell acknowledged fans could be led to think the worst but said NASCAR is obligated to protect its competitors.
“We are always going to err on protecting the driver,” O’Donnell said.
The screens, as it turned out, weren’t tall enough to shield Newman from fans high in the Daytona grandstands. And, O’Donnell expressed regret NASCAR didn’t tarp Newman’s car because some sort of covering would have contained all the broken parts, pieces and twisted metal needed to be examined in the accident investigation.
So work will continue, as it has in the 19 years since Earnhardt was the last Cup driver killed in a race. Newman seems to be healing and Newmark confirmed Newman’s goal of winning the 2020 championship remains intact.
In the roller-coaster week of completing the rain- delayed Daytona 500, tending to Newman and shifting the series across the country to Las Vegas, the NASCAR community showed its unwavering support for its family. Helton was one of the first to arrive at the hospital and Newman was either visited or called by all top executives, from Chairman Jim France on down.
Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin went to the hospital after he left the track. Martin Truex Jr. was in Daytona awaiting Newman’s discharge from the hospital. Blaney spoke to him Wednesday night. Joey Logano texted a joke about Newman not having a neck.
Newman, one of the most stubborn drivers in the series who will absolutely never yield position on track without a fierce battle, was moved.
“I want to personally thank everyone, including the man upstairs, for their support, encouragement and the numerous offers of assistance,” Newman said. “We always say that the NASCAR community is one big family and never has that been more evident to me than after seeing this family rally together and provide the comfort and support that has been shown to my family and me over the past few days. The calls and visits from the NASCAR executives and my friends and competitors has been truly uplifting.”
“Moonlight Sonata” later in the program, and Christina Aguilera sang “Ave Maria.”
The two-hour program concluded with “Dear Basketball,” Bryant’s Academy Award-winning short film.
After Jimmy Kimmel welcomed the crowd, Vanessa Bryant remembered the family’s life with Gianna and her three siblings and then eulogized her husband. They had been together since 1999.
“He was the most amazing husband,” she said. “Kobe loved me more than I could ever express or put into words. I was fire. He was ice. Vice versa at times. ... He was my everything.”
The mourners included Lakers greats such as Jerry West, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Pau Gasol. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver joined Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Phil Jackson and dozens of current NBA players, including Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving and Los Angeles natives James Harden, Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan. Celebrities such as Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez also attended.
Jordan, the Chicago Bulls great whose career was wrapping up as Bryant’s was starting in the late 1990s, praised Bryant
as “one of my dear friends. He was like a little brother. ... As I got to know him, I wanted to be the best big brother that I could be.”
O’Neal and Bryant joined the Lakers together in 1996, and they won three consecutive championships during eight tumultuous seasons in purple and gold. Although their relationship was often publicly rocky, Shaq said the two were always friendly in private, even comparing their dynamic to John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
“Kobe and I pushed each other to play some of the greatest basketball of all time,” O’Neal said. “I’m proud nobody has accomplished what the threepeat Lakers have done since the Shaq and Kobe Lakers did it.”
O’Neal also got the biggest laugh in the somber service with a profane joke about an exchange in which Shaq told Kobe there was no “I” in team, but Bryant responded by noting that there is an “M-E.”
Vanessa Bryant was followed on the podiumby basketball stars Diana Taurasi and Sabrina Ionescu. Kobe Bryant was a passionate advocate for women’s basketball, and Gigi Bryant was a promising young player.
“If I represented the present of the women’s game, Gigi represented the future, and Kobe knew it,” said Ionescu, the Oregon star who was mentored by Bryant.
Rob Pelinka, Bryant’s longtime agent before he
became the Lakers’ general manager in 2017, referred to the day of the crash as “when the axis of the world seemed to shift forever, for all of us.” Pelinka was also Gigi Bryant’s godfather, and the families were close.
He also revealed that Bryant had texted himonly moments before the crash, asking for help in securing an internship with a baseball agent for teenager Alexis Altobelli, who lost her parents and younger sister in the crash moments later.
“Kobe lived to make other people’s lives better, all the way up to his final text,” Pelinka said.
Among the early arriving fans was Alyssa Shapiro, 27, of Huntington Beach, who said she was inspired to become a basketball player after watching countless Lakers games with her father.
The family’s love of the game — and Bryant’s work in women’s sports — prompted her to become a middle school girls’ basketball coach. Her team had played Gianna’s team and she would watch Bryant cheer for his daughter in the stands. She said she went up to Bryant to introduce herself at a game.
“I just wanted to thank him for being such an inspiration to me,” she said. “I grew up watching him on the screen. ... It made me realize he’s more than just that guy out on the court.”
The concourse was a sea of people dressed in the team colors of purple and yellow and others in black.
On the scoreboard, the Bryant family’s life flashes by in pictures.
The service began just hours after Vanessa Bryant sued the owner of the helicopter that crashed in the fog last month. The wrongful- death lawsuit claimed that the pilot, Ara Zobayan, was careless and negligent by flying in cloudy conditions.
At the arena, fans were given a program containing photos, a purple KB pin and a T-shirt with photos of the father and daughter.
Money from ticket sales was to be given to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, which supports youth sports programs in underserved communities and teaches sports to girls and women.
Bryant played his entire 20-year NBA career with the Lakers, who moved from the Forum to Staples Center when it opened in 1999. The five-time NBA champion’s two retired jersey numbers — 8 and 24 — hang high above the arena where he became the thirdleading scorer in league history. Lakers star LeBron James surpassed him on the night before Bryant’s death.
Bryant remained one of the most popular figures in Los Angeles well into retirement. Dozens of public memorials and murals have been installed around the sprawling metropolis.
A private funeral was held Feb. 7 in Orange County.