‘HE WAS MY EVERYTHING’
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant’s wife remembered him as a devoted father and husband who arrived early for school pickups and wrote heartfelt cards and letters.
Rob Pelinka, Bryant’s longtime agent and closest friend, recalled getting a text from the NBA superstar moments before he was killed last month in a helicopter crash. The message asked for help in securing an internship for another friend’s daughter.
Michael Jordan called Bryant “a little brother” and said when he died, “a piece of me died.”
Bryant’s athletic achievements were only part of the reason that 20,000 Lakers fans gathered Monday for a public memorial service at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. The event offered another chance to honor Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and the other seven victims of the crash with tears, memories and laughs.
Los Angeles already knew that Bryant was much more than a basketball player. His friends and family told the world.
“I couldn’t see him as a celebrity, nor just an incredible basketball player,” Vanessa Bryant said. “He was my sweet husband and the beautiful father of my children. He was mine. He was my everything.”
The ceremony included musical numbers by Beyonce, Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera. The event concluded
Right: with a screening of “Dear Basketball,” Bryant’s Academy Award-winning short film about reluctantly saying goodbye to his passion upon his retirement from the Lakers in 2016.
Fans, many wearing Bryant’s jersey or team colors, filled the seats at the downtown arena where Bryant played
KOBE,
for the final 17 seasons of a two-decade NBA career spent entirely with Los Angeles’ most popular sports franchise.
The mourners included Lakers legends Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Pau Gasol. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver joined Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Phil Jackson and dozens of current NBA players, including Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and LA natives James Harden, Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan. Celebrities such as Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez also attended.
After Jimmy Kimmel welcomed the crowd, Vanessa Bryant provided a poignant window into the family’s life with Gianna and her three sisters — Natalia, Bianka and Capri.
“God knew they couldn’t be on this Earth without each other,” said Vanessa Bryant, who had been with Kobe since 1999. “He had to bring them home to have them together. Babe, you take care of our Gigi. And I got Nati, Bibi and Coco. We’re still the best team.”
Vanessa Bryant was followed on the podium by basketball stars Diana Taurasi and Sabrina Ionescu and University of Connecticut women’s coach Geno Auriemma. Kobe Bryant was a passionate advocate for women’s basketball, and Gigi Bryant was a promising young player who aspired to play at UConn.
“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.
Pelinka 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 revealed that Bryant had texted him asking for help in getting an internship with a baseball agent for teenager Alexis Altobelli,