Vanessa celebrates as Kobe Bryant's sports novel tops bestseller list: 'The Mamba strikes again'
The late Kobe Bryant's sports fantasy novel, ‘The Wizenard Series: Season One’ has hit the No. 1 spot on The New York Times' bestseller list for middle-grade hardcover books.
Celebrating the new accomplishment, his wife Vanessa Bryant took to Instagram on Wednesday, April 8, mentioning that the feat has brought the total number of best-selling books to his name to five: the same number of championships he led the Los Angeles Lakers to over his 20-year career.
"5 championships. 5 NYT bestsellers. The Mamba strikes again," wrote the 37-year-old beloved wife of the late basketball player on Instagram along with a picture of the book.
She added: "The Mamba strikes again. My husband @kobebryant would have been so proud to see his work continuing on with The #Wizenard Series: Season One. Thank you for supporting his legacy!!!!"
In her post, Vanessa also tagged Granity Studios, the company that Bryant founded. It is the same company that produced the late legend’s Academy Award-winning short film 'Dear Basketball'.
'The Wizenard Series: Season One' that details the story of "strain and sacrifice, supernatural breakthroughs and supreme dedication to the game" is the second book of the late NBA star's 'The Wizenard Series'. Kobe got together with author Wesley King on the project.
According to Graznity Studios, other books of Kobe that became best-sellers are 'Epoca: The Tree Of Ecrof', 'Legacy And The Queen', 'The Wizenard: Training Camp' and 'The Mamba Mentality: How I Play'.
This comes days after Vanessa celebrated the release of the book on Instagram. She shared a promo video clip showing the cover of 'The Wizenard Series: Season One'.
At the bottom of the clip, a message read "SOMETIMES WINNING MEANS DEFEATING YOURSELF". The short video also includes a picture of a black and white image of a basketball hoop and a young boy with a basketball.
Vanessa also tagged a caption along with the post which read: “Welcome back to Dren! We hope you are all ready to catch up with the West Bottom Badgers for another magical basketball season. The #Wizenard Series: Season One is OUT NOW. #KobeBryant #GranityStudios #Kobeinc.”
Kobe died in a tragic accident in January 2020 at the age of 41, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others, in a helicopter crash in California.
Before his death, he had talked about his love for Granity Studios in his Instagram post. "I created Granity Studios as a way of teaching valuable life lessons to the next generation. Our stories represent a competitive mindset about being the best at what you do," his caption read for a November 2019 pic that showed him posing and smiling while surrounded by books.
Vanessa has been regularly posting fan tributes to the pair on her Instagram account and in March, she posted a video that showed her late husband talking about teaching basketball to their daughter Gianna. She posted the heartwarming video online to mark the two-month anniversary of their tragic deaths.