Goodbye Kobe and Gigi By: Irvin Guillermo On Monday, February 24th, 2020, a public memorial service was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA for NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his
Goodbye Kobe and Gigi
By: Irvin Guillermo
On Monday, February 24th, 2020, a public memorial service was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA for NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant who both lost their lives in a helicopter crash along with 7 others on January 26th. The public memorial service was billed as a “celebration of life.” A limited number of tickets for the memorial service were released to the public for $224 and $24.02 in honor of the jersey numbers worn during basketball games by Kobe and Gianna Bryant.
Those in attendance at the memorial service were Kobe’s parents, Joe and Pamela Bryant, Kobe’s two sisters, Sharia and Shaya Bryant, also friends of the Bryant family such as Phil Jackson, LeBron James, Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez and more. The memorial service was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and featured guest speakers such as Basketball Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal, as well as performances by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera.
Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, paid tribute to her daughter Gigi and her husband after almost backing out of her speech at the memorial service. “May you both rest in peace and have fun in heaven until we meet again one day. We love you both and miss you forever and always,” Vanessa said while holding back her tears.
NBA legend Michael Jordan addressed the crowd at the memorial service and described his close relationship with Kobe. “We talked about business. We talked about family. We talked about everything and he was just trying to be a better person,” said an emotional Michael Jordan during his speech.
Former teammate of Kobe Bryant and NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal shared a story about Kobe Bryant’s teammates complaining to him about Kobe not passing the ball during games, so when Shaq approached Kobe, he told him that “there’s no I in team.” Kobe replied to Shaq and said, “No, but there is a M-E in that, motherfucker.” Afterwards, the Staples Center erupted in laughter.
