Will Always Fight To Continue Kobe’s Legacy: Wife Vanessa
Los Angeles, Feb 9: Fighting for girl power, NBA legend late Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, has said she will fight for his legacy at not just providing a level playing field to girls but also elevating the platform.
“I want to provide young girls with opportunities to showcase their talents and to dominate in their fields,” she said as she was being honored at the 3rd annual Sports Power Brunch presented by Champion during a ceremony held on Tuesday.
“It was important to Kobe, it was exemplified by Gigi and it is something for which Natalia, Bianka, Capri and I will always fight for,” she said.
Bryant was among a few others who were bestowed with the honours ahead of Super Bowl LIV. The show shed light on powerful women in both the field of sports and entertainment. Arriving in a floor length pink dress and matching pink stilettos, with her hair tossed in voluminous curls, Vanessa, 39, received the “Be Your Own Champion Award” for her work with Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation.
According to E! Online, she said: “As a mother of four strong girls, I care deeply about not only leveling the playing field for girls, but elevating it.” “I want to instill in our young people that girls are just as good as boys and often times, better,” she added. She addressed the recent launch of Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation’s first inaugural skills academy and invited several chapters of the Boys and Girls Club to participate, making it clear that the camp was a mixed one where boys and girls would run drills and play together. As for her reasoning behind the decision, she said it’s important to her to “elevate” the way boys and girls view each other at a young age—”as teammates versus competitors.”
She said: “If they’re taught how to share common goals and compete together to achieve them, then those skills will not only help them grow as children but it was also help them grow in business and future relationships as adults.” Vanessa emphasized that this is not only a passion of hers, but of Kobe’s as well. Vanessa is mother to daughters Natalia, 19, Bianka, 6 and Capri, 2, along with her late daughter Giana “Gigi” who died at the age of 13 in a helicopter crash in January 2020 along with her NBA star father. Hosted by Eboni K. Williams, the LA brunch also honored Natalie White, Terri Hines and Denise White.
Back in May, Vanessa celebrated Kobe being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and gave another heartwarming speech, in which she praised her husband’s legacy. “There will never be anyone like Kobe. Kobe was one-of-a-kind,” Vanessa had said. “He was special. He was humble. Off the court. But bigger than life.”
