The numbers we also don’t have is how many kids in the future, how many women, are going to be inspired by Gigi’s life. “What we do have is, today, how many numbers of kids like Diana have been inspired to do more,” Auriemma said. One that any fan of basketball, or of Kobe, can’t ignore, knowing what they fought for in women’s basketball will live on. But an influential collection of talent gave that tragedy a place of purpose Monday. It will always be difficult to understand why Kobe and Gianna Bryant, Alyssa, Kerry and John Altobelli, Christina Mauser, Payton and Sarah Chester, and Ara Zobayan were lost so tragically. Basketball in many ways was just a metaphor.” Through Gigi, through me, through his investment in women’s basketball. ‘You have too much to give to stay silent.’ That’s what he said. Where greatness wasn’t divided by gender. Where being born female didn’t mean being born behind. “I wanted to be a part of the generation that changed basketball for Gigi and her teammates. 4 team in the country and become the first Division I player to score 2,000 career points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds, “Gigi was the future and Kobe knew it. “If I represented the present of the women’s game,” Ionescu said during the memorial, hours before traveling to Stanford to beat the No. Women’s basketball players’ voices have been amplified over the last few years, and the Bryants were just starting to contribute. It was a leap players said over and over again was just as much for the future of the league as it was the present.Įven though the WNBA’s best players hadn’t shared the court for more than a few training sessions with Kobe and Gianna, they were on the same team. It’s a huge stepping stone for an under-appreciated, underpaid and under-covered sport. Weeks prior, the WNBA negotiated its best collective bargaining agreement yet, nearly doubling the pay ceiling for the league’s top players, and, for the first time, providing fully paid maternity leave. Kobe and Gianna’s deaths wounded the women’s basketball community at a time when it was gaining strength. “We play and fight to improve and create a league that she deserved to play in.” “We all saw a piece of ourselves in ,” tweeted Gabby Williams, Chicago Sky forward and former UConn star. The event was about Kobe and Gianna’s lives, and not just who they were, but what they loved - namely, their passion for growing women’s sports, and platforming those who could do it best. The message Vanessa wanted to carry out in memory of Kobe and Gianna was clear in the speakers she chose to follow her eulogy: Diana Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer Sabrina Ionescu, college basketball’s all-time leader in triple-doubles and UConn’s head coach Geno Auriemma, who Gianna always wanted to play for. Since they knew Gigi’s goal was to eventually play in the WNBA.” And I truly feel she made positive changes for the WNBA players now. She wrote papers in school defending women and wrote about how the unequal pay difference for the NBA and WNBA leagues wasn’t fair. Gigi was motivated to change the way everyone viewed women in sports. “She would’ve made a huge difference for women’s basketball. “Gigi would’ve most likely become the best player in the WNBA,” Vanessa said. Women’s basketball deserves your attention. They, along with millions watching, left with the same message: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, and dozens of other celebrities watched as Vanessa Bryant eulogized her husband and 13-year-old daughter in a way that was both crushing and beautiful. Michael Jordan wept over the loss of his “little brother.” Shaquille O’Neal jokingly recalled Bryant’s selfish tendencies on the court. Monday’s event was one of the most inspiring and heartbreaking scenes in sports history in an arena packed with the world’s most recognizable athletes and Hollywood stars. So that’s what everyone came together to do. To their final day, Kobe and Gianna wanted to expand appreciation for women’s basketball. Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s celebration of life at Staples Center provided space to grieve, love, and remember.
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