Twenty thousand mourners flocked to the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles on Monday to say their goodbyes to Kobe and Gianna Bryant.
The Celebration of Life honoring the basketball legend and his 13-year-old daughter drew fans from across the country to the Southern California city almost a month after they were killed along with seven others in a helicopter crash on January 26.
Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s wife and Gianna’s mother, opened the memorial with tearful remarks about her ‘baby girl’ and her ‘soulmate’.
‘God knew they couldn’t be on this Earth without each other,’ Vanessa said. ‘He had to bring them home to have them together.’
She described Gianna as ‘an amazingly sweet and gentle soul’ who lit up every room she walked into, and choked up as she talked about how her daughter inherited her father’s fierce love and talent for basketball, and how she would never get to see Gianna become the trailblazer she was destined to be in the sports world.
Vanessa then reflected on her 21-year relationship with Kobe, whom she described as ‘the best girl dad’, who taught their four daughters ‘how to be brave and keep pushing forward when things get tough’.
NBA legends Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal took the stage later on, both breaking down in tears as they remembered their late friend and rival.
Several other famous sports figures who knew Kobe personally and professionally also spoke at the memorial, which featured musical performances by Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera.
Staples Center sold out for the memorial, and the money made from ticket sales will be given to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, which supports youth sports programs in under-served communities and teaches sports to girls and women.
Vanessa chose February 24 as the date for the memorial in honor of the pair’s uniform numbers.
Kobe wore number 24 over the second half of his career and Gianna wore number 2 on her youth basketball teams.
