On January 26, 2020, the sports world was rocked when it was reported that Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter crash. I remember exactly where I was when I found out. I was sitting on the couch in my sorority house, procrastinating on homework, when I got a text from my roommate asking me if it was true that Kobe Bryant was dead. Having not seen anything, I asked her who told her that. Her response: TMZ.
After that, it was like a dam broke online. Thousands of reports and tweets poured in, mostly of shock and disbelief, but also mountains of misinformation. All the reports agreed that Kobe Bryant was dead and that he had died in a helicopter crash. The problem was no one could agree on who was with him on the helicopter. TMZ was only reporting Kobe because they had not received confirmation on all the passengers. Meanwhile ABC news was reporting that Kobe, his wife, and all four of his daughters had been on the helicopter, a wild statement considering the youngest was 6 months old at the time. Many sources were reporting that Rick Fox was dead, to the surprise of everyone, though no one was more surprised than Rick Fox himself, who was very much alive.
While the world was trying (and failing) to figure out if Kobe had been alone on the helicopter, his wife Vanessa was also looking for answers. Vanessa had been contacted by her eldest daughter Natalia that reports were circulating that Kobe’s helicopter had crashed and an assistant had also told her the helicopter had crashed but that there were five survivors. This statement later turned out to be false. When notifications started popping up on her phone reading “RIP Kobe,” Vanessa then rushed to the airport to try and charter a helicopter herself to take her to the crash site but was denied due to the weather. Unlike the rest of the world, Vanessa knew at least one other passenger had been on that helicopter with Kobe, their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, affectionally known as Gigi.
Unfortunately, it turned out that there had been 9 people on the helicopter, and no one had survived. In addition to Kobe and Gianna, the other seven passengers had been Gianna’s friend and teammate Alyssa Altobelli and her parents Keri and John Altobelli, friend and teammate Payton Chester and her mother Sarah Chester, coach Christina Mauser, and the pilot, Ara Zobayan.
Tributes went out, honoring Kobe, multiple NBA games that day started the game with an 8 second backcourt violation and a 24 second shot clock violation, a nod to Kobe’s jersey numbers 8 and 24. That night, thousands of fans gathered outside Stables to mourn the loss of Kobe and set up a memorial. Over the next week, an estimated 300,000 fans came by Staples leaving basketballs, signs, letters, flags, hats, shoes, and even stuffed animals. The Lakers later alongside Vanessa hosted a memorial service, honoring the memory of Kobe and Gianna. The WNBA made Gianna, Alyssa, and Payton their 2020 honorary draftees. And UConn, Gianna’s top choice for college, honored her with a number 2 jersey (Gigi’s jersey number) and floral arrangement perched on the UConn Bench.
The news came out that the passengers had been on their way to a basketball tournament at Kobe’s Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks and, as most fans know, helicopter was Kobe’s preferred method of travel. He had constantly taken a helicopter to the Staples Center when he played for the Lakers, since he lived over an hour away in a different county and LA traffic is constantly a nightmare. After it was announced that there was no black box, everyone believed that other than a recording from air traffic control, we weren’t going to hear much else. Then the news broke that there were two lawsuits. The first, against the helicopter company and the estate of the pilot, was expected. The second, however, was a surprise.
Several months after the crash news broke that Vanessa Bryant (later joined by Chris Chester, Payton’s dad) was suing Los Angeles County (the Altobelli and Mauser families later filed their own separate lawsuits). It turns out that while at the site, as many as eight deputies had taken photos, seen photos, or shared photos of the bodies on their cell phones and then some of them proceeded to show the photos to normal citizens, bragging that they had photos of Kobe Bryant’s dead body. Vanessa and the others then sued to make sure that the surviving family members would never have to see those photos. For anyone who has read Kobe’s autopsy report, it is clear as day why no one should ever see those photos, and it is quite disturbing that anyone would think it was okay to take the photos (especially in the course of duty) let alone show them to others.
In addition to having to deal with LA County, Vanessa was also trying to continue to raise her daughters without her husband and their sister. She and eldest daughter Natalia started by simply keeping their memory alive by posting pictures and videos on their (now public) Instagram accounts of the two as well as making sure the younger two, Bianka (at the time 3) and Capri (at the time 6 months) knew how much Kobe and Gigi loved them and how special they were. Then Vanessa took it a step further.
In an incredible show of strength, Vanessa decided to keep Kobe and Gigi’s legacy alive by establishing the Mamba and Mambacita Foundation. On Gigi’s 15th birthday, Vanessa teamed up with female owned brand DanniJo to create two limited edition MAMBACITA X DANNIJO sweat sets. Due to the popularity, they then brought it back in honor of Gigi’s 16th birthday in addition to Nike Kobe VI “Sweet Sixteen” shoes. For Gigi’s 17th birthday, it was a mixture of another shoe in a beautiful box that said “Mambacita” and had the number 2 with wings and a halo underneath it as well as a jersey and keychain. Finally, this past year, on Gigi’s 18th birthday she teamed up with Nike again to release the Kobe 8 Proto Mambacita sneakers (only available via the Nike SNKRS app) along with Gigi’s jersey in black and white, and a Mambacita’s 18th Birthday Capsule Collection. It wasn’t only on Gigi’s birthday that merchandise was dropped. For this past Father’s Day she dropped the Kobe 4 Proto “Girl Dad” and for his 46th birthday she dropped an LA Royal Collection. And every time you order an item, in addition, you receive a red bracelet that says #PlayGigisWay, and all the money goes to the foundation.
In the five years since Kobe and Gigi’s passing a lot has happened. Kobe was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame (Natalia accepted alongside her mother on his behalf), various murals have gone up around the country, the Lakers have unveiled multiple statutes in Kobe and Gigi’s honor and more. Life went on. Natalia graduated high school and went to college, Alyssa Altobelli’s sister, Alexis, got an internship at a top sports agency, Christina Mauser’s husband, Matt, went on America’s Got Talent, Capri celebrated her fifth birthday, and most recently Bianka celebrated her eighth. The world continues spinning, but we have not forgotten Kobe, Gigi, Alyssa, Keri, John, Sarah, Payton, Christina, and Ara. Their memories and legacies continue to live on five years later. #MambaForever