Her name was Gianna Maria Onore Bryant. The world, now and forever, knows her as Gigi. Her dad, Kobe Bryant, called her Mambacita. He was Mamba, of course, and she was going to be basketball’s female version of him. She was going to play at Connecticut and head to the WNBA. That was the plan.
Gigi was 13. She was one of the nine people, her father also among them, on the helicopter that crashed Sunday morning into a hillside in Calabasas, California, as the group made its way to a basketball tournament where she was supposed to be playing. The helicopter burst into flames. All nine — including two of her teammates — died, officials said.
Bryant and Gigi went to a UConn home game against Houston last March. Bryant wore a UConn shirt — just like Gigi was — and told SNY television during an in-game interview that he was thrilled that one of his daughters wanted to follow in his sneakers and take up the family basketball business. “She had the right mentality, so confident, relentless, so mean and aggressive,” Williams said. “And then walk off the court with the biggest, sweetest smile on her face. But my favourite part about her was just seeing how much she loved the game and loved to learn.
Will you be showing Kobe’s final game along with ESPN tonight
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