Created by sculptor Dan Medina, it shows Kobe Bryant in his Lakers uniform with his arm around Gianna, who is also wearing a basketball uniform with a basketball in her hand. The statue was installed for the second anniversary of the Jan. A bronze sculpture of Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant on Januat the crash site in Calabasas, California. “I don’t think any of us will ever forget that day,” Kerr said.A bronze statue of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna has been placed at the crash site in Calabasas, California, where the Bryants and seven others were killed. It is a day for remembrance, not that it’s needed.īryant’s legacy lives on. The Lakers are not planning any formal marking of the day, nor is the NBA. It was one of the worst moments of all our lives.” A lot of guys dropped to the floor and started crying. “Everything stopped,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. Word spread around the NBA quickly the Golden State Warriors were just starting practice when someone there found out. The Lakers were in the air when the news broke, flying home from a game in Bryant’s hometown of Philadelphia. Sarah Chester and her 13-year-old daughter Payton, another of the players along with Gianna and Alyssa, also were on board. Tony Altobelli and Mauser’s husband, Matt, have become friends in the last year they didn’t know each other before Jan. And I think that’s pretty cool.”Ĭhristina Mauser died in the crash as well she was one of the coaches at Bryant’s academy. I’ve kind of jokingly said if it had to happen, I’m glad a global figure was with him when it happened because now the whole world knows about my brother, my sister-in-law and my niece. “It takes a little bit of the sting off what happened. “It’s nice to see his memory, and just his way of his life being celebrated by people far beyond our area,” Tony Altobelli said. That’s how the world got to know who his brother was. And somehow, even for a story this painful, Tony Altobelli has managed to do that. Tony Altobelli is the sports information director at that school sports information directors are tasked with promoting their teams, in good times and bad, always trying to find a positive way to tell a story. John Altobelli was the baseball coach at Orange Coast College in Southern California. Alyssa Altobelli was a teammate of Gianna Bryant she was on the helicopter along with John, her father, and mother Keri. Tony Altobelli lost his actual brother, John Altobelli, in the crash. “Out of respect to my brother,” Butler said.īutler and Bryant were brothers in the teammate sense. When Butler played for the Lakers, Bryant strongly urged him to kick the habit.īutler was taping an ad last year for Mountain Dew. Butler famously had a longtime affinity for Mountain Dew, even drinking it during games when others thought he was having Gatorade. When you think about being better, embracing the storm, having the right mentality and perspective about life and always trying to be better, he embodied it all and that’s why his legacy will live forever.”īryant is gone, but that doesn’t mean Butler is wavering on a promise he made. “The legacy that he left, man, he did it all. “God rest his soul, God rest the soul of Gigi and the seven others that perished,” said Miami assistant coach and former NBA player Caron Butler, who was close with Bryant for years. He still resonates, maybe more than ever. 4 scorer in NBA history, a 20-year veteran of the league – left behind, it has been erased. Tributes have been made.Īnd if there was any doubt about what kind of legacy Bryant – a five-time NBA champion, still the No. Yet his presence was so clearly felt in each of those moments.īryant, his daughter Gianna and the other seven people who climbed aboard that helicopter on a Sunday morning in Southern California have been gone for exactly one year – Tuesday marks the grim anniversary of the crash that took their lives. He wasn’t there to hear the Basketball Hall of Fame announced that his career was worthy of enshrinement. He wasn’t at the All-Star weekend in Chicago where half the players wore his number on their uniforms, the other half wearing his daughter’s jersey number. Kobe Bryant wasn’t in the bubble with the Los Angeles Lakers last fall when they won the NBA championship.
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