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| One year ago, Kobe and Gigi Bryant died in a helicopter crash. |
BLACK LIVES MATTER
PROTECT BLACK WOMEN!
WEAR A DAMN MASK! SAVE A LIFE!
STILL MAMBA ALL DAY! KOBE BRYANT STILL A LEGEND!
GOOGLE'S BLOGGER IS TRASH!
It's almost hard to believe that on this day, the legendary basketball star Kobe Bryant passed away along with his daughter Gigi and five others.
On Sunday, January 26, 2020, Kobe and his daughter were on their way to a basketball camp in the Los Angeles area. They took along four of her friends, a coach and operated by the pilot.
The day was heavily foggy and air travel was restricted. The pilot ignored the warnings and end up flying the helicopter on its deadly flight.
The helicopter crashed into a mountain near Simi Valley.
The crash led to the death of an iconic figure in NBA history. A man who worked tirelessly to build the Los Angeles Lakers to greatness. A man who played with the team for over 20 years.
A man who was a father to his daughters and working on building a life with his wife.
A man who was flawed with the temptations of fame almost ruined by an encounter in a Colorado resort. Bryant was accused of sexual assault on a woman at the resort. He would have seen his career in the iron college. He managed to beat the charges but it ruined his brand.
He ended up settling out of court and moving on. He and his wife Vanessa had a rocky relationship at one point in which they were going to divorce, but they ended up reconciling before his death.
His youngest daughter will have no memory of him. She was only less than a year old when her dad passed away.
Vanessa a widow now raises her three daughters and copes everyday missing her love.
Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association.
Vanessa mournfully marked the first anniversary of the tragic deaths of her late husband, NBA legend Kobe Bryant, and her teenage daughter, Gianna — sharing a moving note from one of Gianna's best friends.
Thirty-eight-year-old Vanessa — who is also mom to daughters Natalia, 18, Bianka, 4, and 1-year-old Capri — shared the letter on her Instagram feed, writing a heartfelt message alongside the post.
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| A moment that shows a family. Kobe and vanessa and their daughters. |
"Today I received this sweet letter from one of Gianna's best friends, Aubrey," Vanessa began in her caption. "I love you Aubz (as my Gigi would call you). Thank you so much for beautifully sharing some of your memories of my Gigi with me and allowing me to share them here on my ig."
She continued, "My Gigi is INCREDIBLE and I truly appreciate your thoughtful letter. She loves you so much. I miss my baby girl and Kob-Kob so much, too. ♥️I will never understand why/how this tragedy could've happened to such beautiful, kind and amazing human beings. It still doesn't seem real. Kob, we did it right. Gigi, you still make mommy proud. I love you!"
Vanessa concluded the post using the hashtags "#PlayGigisWay," "#Mambacita," "#Mamba," "#DaddysGirl" and "#GirlDad."
The emotional note from Aubrey honored Gianna as a friend who pushed Aubrey "to be better," and praised Vanessa as a mother.
"... If I ever become a mother, I hope my daughter turns out exactly as yours did," Aubrey said in the note. "[Gianna's] love of life is something I admire endlessly ... She would smile up the rest of the world."
Later in the letter, Aubrey wrote, "There are times I get into a pit of despair thinking about her and what she could've accomplished had she had a couple more years. But recently I have been thinking about the mark she did leave on this earth. Her fights for equality in sports made the world reconsider there opinions, she along with Mr. Bryant, set the wheels in motion."
Concluding her note, Aubrey told Vanessa that she "did it right" when it came to raising Gianna.
"I am so, so blessed I got to have time with your angel of a daughter, and thank you for giving me that chance," she said, adding, "I love you and am thinking of you as we remember an honor her life."
On the morning of Jan. 26, 2020, Kobe, Gianna and a group of friends — including Sarah and Payton Chester, Christina Mauser, John Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli — were on their way to a basketball game in a helicopter piloted by Ara Zobayan that ultimately crashed in Calabasas, California. At the time, Kobe was 41, and Gianna was 13.
At the time of his death, Kobe was four years into his retirement from the NBA and had positioned himself at the helm of prominent business interests including the basketball camp, the Mamba Sports Academy, and the multimedia agency, Granity Studios, which produced the 2018 Academy Award-winning animated short film, Dear Basketball, and several New York Times best-selling novels.
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| Kobe Bryant is missed. |
"She had the best laugh," Vanessa said at the celebration of life. "It was infectious, it was pure and genuine. Kobe and Gianna naturally gravitated toward each other. "
Vanessa paid tribute to her husband's love of fatherhood, saying, "Kobe was the MVP of girl dads, or MVD. He never left the toilet seat up. He always told the girls how beautiful and smart they are. He taught them how to be brave."
"We loved each other with our whole beings," she continued, "two perfectly imperfect people making a beautiful family and raising our sweet and amazing girls."
Nearly two weeks before the solemn anniversary, Vanessa opened up on Instagram about dealing with grief.
"One day you're in the moment laughing and the next day you don't feel like being alive," she wrote. "I want to say this for people struggling with grief and heartbreaking loss. Find your reason to live. I know it's hard."
"Death is guaranteed but living the rest of the day isn't," Vanessa added. "Find your reason."
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