Gianna Bryant is `Forever A Husky, ” announced female basketball of Connecticut after the tragic helicopter accident of 2020 which won the 13-year life, as well as those of her father, Kobe, and seven other people.
Now, after Uconn beat the Southern Carolina to win the NCAA championship in what would have been the first year of Gianna season, the spirit of her mother Vanessa naturally turned to the girl she calls with love “Gigi”.
“Gigi would have loved being there with you,” wrote the widow of Kobe on Instagram alongside a graph congratulating the Huskies for the last national school championship.
Vanessa then shared one of Gigi’s favorite quotes: “When you think you can’t, Uconn.”
She ended the quote with a “congratulations” for coach Geno Auriemma and his fabulous talented Huskies.
Gigi had once dreamed of playing Uconn. Even when the UCLA alum and the temple of the Basketball Basketball Reggie Miller encouraged his father to push her to the Bruins in 2018, Kobe disappointed her rival saying to her: “ She is the hell to go to Uconn ”, revealed Arash Markazi at the time.
Kobe Bryant is seen with his daughter, Gianna, at Barclays Center a month before the accident
After Uconn beat the South Carolina in what would have been Gianna’s first year season, the spirit of her mother Vanessa naturally turned to the girl she calls with love “gigi”
Connecticut Huskies celebrate after defeating the Southern Carolina Gamecocks in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament game match in 2025
The UCONN star, Paige Bueckers, was questioned about Gigi after Sunday’s victory, and she admitted that she had thought of the Bryants lately.
“There were times all this weekend and throughout the tournament that God really showed up and my mother staying in room 824, both Kobe figures,” she said. “Tips like that.
“ It was a very blessed year, I mean winning or losing, it is a very blessed year, but I just have the impression that the presence of God has really shown and small things that you just see his presence so palpable ”, she continued. “I have the impression that a lot of this is also Kobe who watches over us, Gigi watches over us.
Inheritance of his father’s obsession for basketball, Gigi was a member of the Kobe Mamba Sports Academy team in 2020, when she was part of eight passengers aboard a helicopter towards the Californian coast to a match in Newbury Park.
According to the authorities, the Ara Zobayan pilot became disoriented while stealing through a cloud and lost control of the helicopter, causing the accident that killed Gigi, Kobe, the baseball coach John Altobe, his wife Keri and his daughter Alyssa; Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton; Basketball coach Christina Mauser and Zobayan himself.
Gianna Bryant is “ forever a Husky, ” announced female basketball of Connecticut after the tragic helicopter accident of 2020 which claimed the life of 13 years and those of eight other
The Los Angeles Player Sol Marta Viera Da Silva (L) poses with Kobe and Vanessa Bryant, and their daughters Natalia and Gianna after a match against the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2009
Vanessa Bryant attends the Baby2baby 2024 gala at the Pacific Design Center on November 9
Several members of this team who were not on the helicopter have since started their university basketball careers. Kat Righeimer of Northwestern, Annika Jiwani of Dartmouth and Emily Eadie de Princeton are only three of the six players of the Mamba Academy in the division I teams.
“I grew up going to the Catholic school,” Righeimer told NBC New York. “I went to church twice a week, and I prayed a lot, but I don’t remember praying as hard as that moment. And I remember saying to my father, “What does that mean?” What are we going to do?
Righeimer also described what it was to play with Gigi.
“She was very sparkling, I can hear her laugh in my head,” said Righeimer. “She was still smiling, always made jokes. But in the field, it’s like a lighting switch. She becomes like a beast.
Eadie compared Gigi to her father, saying that she was “just the most difficult worker”.