Kobe and Gianna Bryant were honored at the Staples Center on Monday, with Jimmy Kimmel hosting the event and several others, including Vanessa Bryant, addressing the crowd.
Vanessa spoke of Kobe and Gianna as father and daughter, saying, “God knew they couldn't be on this earth without each other. He had to bring them home to have them together.”
It was a touching tribute.
“I kind of couldn’t believe it when you think about what she’s been through, how hard that must have been, kind of letting people in,” Southern California News Group Lakers reporter Kyle Goon said on After Hours with Amy Lawrence. “That kind of took my breath away. . . . All the plans they had for when they would be able to travel together and how she really regretted they wouldn’t be able to do so many things as a family, it was completely heartbreaking. It gives you sort of a picture into just how much this family has been hurt by this tragedy and sort of the depth of what she and her kids must be feeling right now.”
The event featured numerous speakers, including Michael Jordan, who broke down at the podium, and Rob Pelinka, who received texts from Kobe from the helicopter.
“That’s come out to a degree,” Goon continued, “but obviously since this happened, we just haven’t heard from Vanessa like this. We certainly haven’t heard from Rob like this. Michael Jordan almost never talks. And to a stunning degree, the vulnerability he showed today, I’m not sure he’s ever shown that publicly in his entire life. So I think it was a tremendous gesture to the memory of Kobe, not sort of this mythical figure, but this three-dimensional, grounded person.”