Remembering Gigi Bryant (2006-2020)

Gianna Bryant died on Sunday morning when the helicopter she was riding in crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, Calif., a city 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles. She was 13.

Bryant, known as “Gigi,” was the second of four children born to NBA basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa, a former model. Her father died alongside her in the crash, which claimed the lives of seven other victims including the pilot, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. There were no survivors.

Gianna Maria-Onore “Gigi” Bryant was born on May 1, 2006.

As a young child, Gigi became a fixture at Lakers basketball games alongside her older sister, Natalia, 17, and her mother. (The Bryants later had two additional daughters after Kobe retired from basketball: Bianka, 3, and Capri, 7 months).

As Gigi grew into a young teenager, her love for basketball transcended watching her dad. She began playing competitive ball year-round, with her father helping to coach her team. During an interview on Jimmy Kimmel’s television show recently, Kobe said of Gigi that she “for sure” wanted to play in the WNBA someday.

“The best thing that happens is when we go out and she’ll be standing next to me and fans will come up to me like ‘Hey, you gotta have a boy, you and (Vanessa) gotta have a boy — somebody to carry on the legacy and the tradition’ and (Gigi) will be like ‘Oy, I got this. We don’t need a boy for that. I got this!'”

Kobe told the Showtime Basketball podcast “All the Smoke” that after he retired he had stopped watching basketball. But it was Gigi’s love for the game that got him watching again. Gigi’s favorite players were Trae Young, Luka Doncic, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James.

By all accounts, she was developing into a fine basketball player in her own right.

When Gigi and her dad flew to Atlanta to watch Young play, Young joked that he was just as excited to meet Gigi as she was to meet him because he had been watching her highlight reels.

A few hours after Gigi’s death, Young tweeted:

…This S*** can’t be real… this the first moment I was able to meet Gianna Maria, she’s been to only 3 games this year… 2 of them were mine… She told me I was her favorite player to watch🙏🏽 I can’t believe this😢😭 Rest Easy Gigi❤️ pic.twitter.com/IfDrE9Gjlv — Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) January 26, 2020

When Gigi was 12 years old, Reggie Miller tried to convince her dad to send her to UCLA, Miller’s alma mater. But Kobe said that Gigi’s heart was set on playing basketball at UConn. Gigi did visit UConn to watch her beloved Huskies play last March during their Senior Day.

Gigi’s social media presence was sparse (she was only 13 after all), but she was a frequent subject on her famous father’s Instagram.

There’s Gigi standing proudly in a jean jacket next to her friend, with perhaps her first cell phone jutting out of her pocket. And there’s Gigi in high heels standing under a basketball hoop looking up at it. The ball is dropping through the net toward her outstretched right hand as her raven hair flies in the wind behind her. And there’s Gigi in a blue-and-gold uniform dribbling the ball down the court before sinking an impossible fadeaway baseline jumper over the outstretched hands of three opponents. Also, Gigi last Halloween dressed as the Tin Man in her family’s Wizard of Oz themed night. Gigi jumping for joy with her teammates after beating a rival. Gigi in Mickey Mouse ears on her dad’s lap at a Pop-Up Disney event.

Gigi woke up Sunday morning to go play basketball, like any other day. She had her whole life ahead of her, and she does not deserve to be remembered for the way she died. She was just a kid who loved her family, her friends and playing and watching basketball.

On the morning of the crash, it is believed she and her father and the other passengers were headed to a basketball tournament at Mamba Sports Academy in Newbury Park, where Gigi was expected to play on Sunday.

All of the games there were canceled.

The current scene at Mamba Sports Academy where all games were cancelled pic.twitter.com/uMHoZBTDcA — Eric Rosenthal (@ericsports) January 26, 2020

Gigi died en route to doing what she loved, but that does not make the loss of a child any easier. She was poised to write her own story as a tremendous athlete and fierce competitor. That story ended way too soon on Sunday.