The basketball great and 13-year-old Gianna are seen in a video from December 21, 2019, when they attended a game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Brooklyn Nets.
The basketball great and 13-year-old Gianna are seen in a video from December 21, 2019, when they attended a game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Brooklyn Nets.
A heartbreaking video of Kobe Bryant lovingly explaining the game of basketball to his daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, has resurfaced shortly after they were killed in a helicopter crash in California.
The basketball great and 13-year-old Gianna are seen in a video from December 21, 2019, when they attended a game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Brooklyn Nets.
Bryant appears to be teaching Gianna a thing or two about the game while sitting courtside at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Gianna, who was a rising star herself in basketball, seemed in agreement with her dad about putting pressure on opponents while playing defense.
According to TMZ, who first broke the news of their deaths, said the father-daughter pair were on their way to the Mamba Academy - located in Thousand Oaks - for a basketball practice when the crash occurred.
Bryant, who won five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, was killed in the Sunday morning helicopter crash alongside Gianna. He was 41 and she was 13.
Four other people died in the crash in a remote field around 10am local time about 40 miles northwest of central Los Angeles, the city of Calabasas said on Twitter.
There were no survivors. The identity of the other victims was not released.
'This is a moment that leaves us struggling to find words that express the magnitude of shock and sorrow we are all feeling right now, and I am keeping Kobe's entire family in my prayers at this time of unimaginable grief,' Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement.
First responders put out the flames of the crash site, Los Angeles County Sheriff said, posting a picture of a fire truck and smoke emerging from the brush in a ravine.
Bryant was known to use a helicopter for travel dating to his days as a star player for the Los Angeles Lakers, when he commuted to games in a Sikorsky S-76 chopper.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the crashed helicopter as a Sikorsky S-76, saying in a statement that the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.
The NBA star, 41, was killed in a helicopter crash today.
Bryant won five NBA championships with the Lakers and was named an NBA all-star 18-times in his 20-year career with the team.
He was third leading scorer in league history with 33,643 points until LeBron James passed him on Saturday.
Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, have four daughters: Gianna, Natalia, Bianca and Capri, who was born in June 2019.
His star power translated into the entertainment world as he mingled with show business stars in Los Angeles.
In 2018 he won an Oscar for his animated short film Dear Basketball.
