OS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 17: Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant attend a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Atlanta Hawks at Staples Center on November 17, 2019 in Los Angeles, California (Image: Getty)
A date has been selected for the memorial of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant. Kobe and Gianna died in a tragic helicopter accident in Calabasas, California on January 26. There were seven other victims of the crash who perished alongside Kobe and Gianna. The public memorial for the late basketball superstar and his daughter is set to be held at the Staples Center on February 24. Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s wife, took to Instagram to share the news.
The picture in Vanessa’s Instagram post announcing the memorial has symbolic significance. The Staples Center is the stadium Kobe played at with the Los Angeles Lakers, the team he played on for the entirety of his career. The day of the memorial, 24, corresponds to Kobe’s jersey number, while the month of the memorial, 2, corresponds to Gianna’s jersey number. Gianna played basketball at Harbor Day School in Newport Beach, California, and she often dreamed of following her father’s footsteps and pursuing a career in professional basketball. The butterflies in the photo are yellow and purple, which correspond to the Lakers’ team colors.
It is unknown at this time whether the public memorial will also commemorate the other seven victims of the helicopter crash, two of which were children. However, both Vanessa and Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal, a former teammate of Kobe, have both been committed to supporting the families of those who died in the accident. Vanessa has posted several tributes to her late husband and daughter on Instagram, and in a post to the website on January 29, Vanessa discussed her intent to help out the victim’s families.
“The Mamba Sports Foundation has set up the MambaOnThree Fund to help support the other families affected by this tragedy,” she wrote in her caption. In a Twitter post, Shaq discussed how he wanted to honor the victims.
“I’ll be dedicating and donating all my proceeds from Friday nights Fun House to all the families who lost loved ones and to the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation,” wrote Shaq.
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