Daughter Gianna († 13) was on board the helicopter with her father.
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Gianna, known as “Gigi”, also played basketball herself.
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A girl lays flowers.
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Houston Rockets players Tyson Chandler, Austin Rivers and P.J. Tucker (from left to right) mourn Bryant before the game against the Denver Nuggets.
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Where Kobe Bryant († 41) was, the drama was not far. Perhaps this also has to do with the city in which he spent his career: in the film metropolis of Los Angeles, people like to put on thick. Hollywood just.
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The tendency of the shooting guard to make a big appearance on the floor was most evident. Then he loved the spotlight. If it was up to Kobe, someone had to be on the ball at the crucial moments: Kobe. This went so far that the obsessed worker was not particularly popular even with his own teammates.
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In contrast, the 1.98 m man was worshiped in the stands of the Staples Center, where the Los Angeles Lakers host their home games. All the spectacular moments he gave them. His fighting spirit. His refusal to accept defeat. His hunt for records. The egoist and the audience in Los Angeles that fit.
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2004 Persona non Grata – only in LA not
The relationship became even more intimate in one of the darkest hours of Bryant’s life: when he was tried in 2004 for raping a hotel employee a year earlier, he became a persona non grata nationwide. In the NBA arenas and outside. But not in Los Angeles, where the supporters shifted to a kind of Wagenburg mentality: we against everyone else.
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The fact that Bryant was not acquitted but admitted to having betrayed his wife Vanessa and then paid the alleged victim compensation in an out-of-court settlement did nothing to detract from the dynamic. The case still resonates today: a journalist from the renowned Washington Post was last covered with a shitstorm and then released because she shared an article on the rape case after Kobe’s death.
video-placeholder__desc">Here LeBron James cries for Kobe Bryant († 41)—-
Bryant’s marriage was also characterized by ups and downs and was nearing the end several times. Vanessa, 18 years old at the wedding with the four-year-old basketball star, stayed with Kobes after the rape trial. Not that there was peace, joy, pancakes: in 2011 the couple announced that they would get a divorce – but later withdrew the decision. In 2013 it became public that they had decided to stay together. There were even two offspring – Kobe and Vanessa had four daughters in total, the youngest was born just over half a year ago.
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Family Zoff
Kobe’s relationship with his parents is even more complicated: 2013 came to the big family zoff when father Joe and mother Pam apparently wanted to sell career memorabilia behind their son’s back. Estimated value: half a million US dollars. “Our relationship is shitty,” Kobe said to “ESPN” at the time.
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And in the “Player’s Tribune” he later wrote in a letter to his 17-year-old self: “The most important piece of advice I can give you: make sure that your parents remain parents and do not become managers. Before you sign your first contract, think about the budget you are going to give them. One that gives them a good life – but also you. That you can expand your business and invest in other people. »
How messed up the relationship is shown by the fact that Joe and Pam were not present at Kobe’s farewell game in 2016. The NBA star hadn’t invited her.
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“So happy in new life”
The difficult relationship with his parents gives the basketball superstar’s close relationship with his four daughters a special light. “He seemed so happy in his new life, with so much time for the family,” says Swiss NBA star Thabo Sefolosha (35). “It really hurts that this happiness was so short-lived. It is so unexpected and it is so unfair. »
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It is the late Kobe that everyone now remembers. The Kobe, who suddenly had an eye for the teammates on the court. Who adored his daughters, tried to bend his family life. And showed heart for his fellow human beings. Suddenly completely undramatic. The man who had delivered the great drama in shirt and shorts, under the baskets and on the three-way line, no longer needed it.