Kobe Bryantand his 13-year-old daughterGiannawere remembered with a moment of silence at the beginning of a Brooklyn Nets game on Wednesday night.
Ahead of the Nets’ match-up against the Detroit Pistons, the lights at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, were dimmed while a video montage showed clips of both Bryant’s basketball career and his special courtside moments with his daughter.
After the video, the announcer read the names of the nine people, including Bryant and Gianna, who were tragicallykilledin a helicopter crash on Sunday. Weeks before his death, the former Los Angeles Laker and Gianna attended a Dec. 21 Nets game at Barclays, and a subsequentviral videoshowed Bryant breaking down the game for his daughter,who was also a basketball player.
Wednesday night’s tribute at Barclays Center ended with a spotlight on two empty courtside seats, the same ones the father-daughter duo had sat in during the viral clip. Two bouquets of flowers were also placed on top of the seats.
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In a resurfaced 2018 interview onJimmy Kimmel Live, Bryant, 41, had opened about how Gianna “for sure” wanted to pursue a career in basketball, just like him.
“The best thing that happens is when we go out and fans come up to me, and she’ll be standing next to me, and they’ll be like, ‘You gotta have a boy, you and [wife Vanessa] gotta have a boy, somebody else to carry on the tradition, the legacy,’” Bryant said.
“She’s like, ‘Oh, I got this. You don’t need a boy for that. I got this.’ I’m like, ‘That’s right, yes you do. You got this,’” he continued.
Gianna Bryant, Kobe Bryant.Allen Berezovsky/Getty
A sourcerecently told PEOPLEthat Gianna was even starting to emulate her father’s iconic style on the court.
“She was actually playing just like him. I just saw video of her playing a couple weeks ago, and she literally did the same exact fade away. Everyone was like ‘That’s Kobe’s girl,’” the source said.
On Wednesday night, Bryant’s widow and Gianna’s mother, Vanessa Bryant,spoke out for the first timesince their deaths inan emotional Instagram post.
“There aren’t enough words to describe our pain right now,” she wrote. “I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved. We were so incredibly blessed to have them in our lives. I wish they were here with us forever. They were our beautiful blessings taken from us too soon.”
Kobe and Vanessa Bryant with family.Vanessa Bryant/Instagram
Vanessa shared that while she is not sure how to recover from their tragic and sudden deaths, she and her family — which includes daughters Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and 7-month-old Capri — are going to “keep pushing.”
Bryant and his daughter died alongside the helicopter’spilot Ara Zobayan,Sarah and Payton Chester,Christina Mauser,John Altobelliand his wife,Keri Altobelli,and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli.
source: people.com
