Vanessa Bryant shares touching video of Kobe talking about coaching Gianna to mark two-month death anniversary
Vannesa Bryant has shared a heartwarming video of her late husband Kobe Bryant talking about teaching daughter Gianna basketball to mark the two-month anniversary of their tragic death.
Kobe, 41, Gianna, 13, and seven others died after a helicopter carrying them crashed into a mountainside in Calabasas, California, on January 26 this year. A memorial service held on February 24 paid tribute to both their lives.
Vanessa, 37, has been regularly posting fan tributes and such to the pair on her Instagram account and recently uploaded a throwback clip of her husband coaching their "extremely competitive" daughter.
"She started out playing soccer, which is one of my favorite sports as well," Kobe says of Gianna in the video. "But then when she asked about learning the game of basketball, I started teaching her piece by piece, and she started enjoying it and loving it and now she plays every day."
"It’s been a joy to watch her grow and to be there every day for that process. Her temperament is a lot like mine. She’s extremely competitive, very fiery, and backs down from no challenge."
"She’s a good mix of me and good mix of her mama, so that makes her even more competitive than I am."
The clip, which was captioned with two broken hearts, came just a few days after it was announced that new guardians had been appointed for the couple's surviving daughters, Natalia, Bianka, and Capri, to represent their interests in their late father's trust.
According to legal documents, Erika Williams has been appointed guardian ad litem for 17-year-old Natalia and three-year-old Bianka Bryant while James Summers will represent Kobe's youngest daughter, nine-month-old Capri. Vanessa and Kobe's agent, Rob Pelinka are co-trustees.
But the trust won't be the only thing running through Vanessa's mind either. In a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Island Express Helicopters Inc, the company that operated the helicopter carrying Kobe and Gianna that fateful day, she alleged the pair might have initially survived the crash.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, names her and her surviving daughters as plaintiffs and is seeking damages Kobe and Gianna "may have suffered between the time of injury and the time of death and for the recovery of which the deceased might have maintained an action had death not ensued including, but not limited to, mental anguish, physical disability, conscious pain and suffering, pre-impact terror, disfigurement, and further considering the aggravating circumstances attendant upon the fatal injury."
She had also accused the pilot, Ara Zobayan, of being reckless and stated he was going 180 miles per hour in the heavy fog in a steep decline, failed to properly monitor and assess the weather prior to takeoff, failed to obtain proper weather data prior to the flight, failed to abort the flight when he knew of the cloudy condition, failed to maintain control of the helicopter and failed to avoid "natural obstacles" in the flight path.
The lawsuit also alleged accused Island Express Helicopters Inc engaged in unnecessary and needlessly risky means of transportation under the circumstances.