"When she came up here on campus, if she could have stayed, I think she would have stayed."Īuriemma is originally from Italy but grew up in the Philadelphia area. She was so excited," Auriemma said of Gigi's excitement to meet the Huskies, who in turn were starstruck by her father. "You could just see the look in her eyes. That wasn't easy."Īuriemma said he met Gigi a few years ago, when she came with her father to a UConn basketball game. "You've gotta put on a happy face, and you've gotta do what you've gotta do. "You've all these kids back with their families," he said. 'She was the future': WNBA stars saw themselves in Gigi Bryant's own hoop dreams.All of that, plus preparing for the game, kept Auriemma busy, but then his thoughts would drift back to Kobe and Gianna. The Huskies had back members of their 20 national championship teams, along with several USA Basketball players from UConn. Then the Huskies held the ball and ran out the 24-second shot clock as a tribute to his second number. The game started with two more tributes to Bryant, as Team USA held the ball for an eight-second backcourt violation in honor of Bryant's first jersey number in the NBA. Auriemma and members of both teams and coaching staffs were visibly moved by a 24-second moment of silence that was observed in honor of Bryant's No. The XL Center jumbotron featured a photo of Bryant and Gigi together at a game. Mambacita is forever a Husky □ /3wdAbdK0Ye- UConn Women's Hoops January 27, 2020 "You don't know what to do or what to say." "You can't react to something like that and say, 'Well, this is what you do when this happens,'" Auriemma said in addressing Bryant's and Gigi's deaths after his Huskies fell 79-65 to the U.S. 2 UConn jersey with flowers on their bench in tribute to Gigi and on social media referred to her as "forever a Husky." Bryant and Gigi died in a helicopter crash with seven others on Sunday in Calabasas, California. UConn and USA Basketball honored both father and daughter at the start of an exhibition game Monday at XL Center. She was just 13 but considered UConn her dream college. He also remembered Bryant's daughter Gianna being so smitten with the Huskies program that she hoped to play for one day that she wanted to stick around campus after a visit. UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma fondly recalled speaking Italian with Kobe Bryant and joking with the NBA legend about asking for defensive strategy. It’s good to celebrate.”Īctress Tia Mowry shared a loving photo of Kobe and Gianna on her Instagram page along with the caption, “Kobe and Gigi, you will never be forgotten. I’m proud of Vanessa and the kids, going to school, just to kind of see that emerge and see the family at least walking around with their heads high. That’s one thing that I’m sure he would’ve wanted, us to celebrate him, keep his legacy going. “But we have to continue to celebrate him. “It is a very special day, the two-year anniversary of his passing, so it’s a celebrated day, it’ll be a sad day thinking about him, memories and what he meant to this organization, what he meant to this city, what he meant to the game of basketball as a whole,” Anthony continued. ![]() The two also played alongside each other at the 2008 Olympics, winning a gold medal for Team USA. I’m sure the city is always thinking about him, people in general are always thinking about him,” as reported by Lakers Nation.Īnthony battled against Kobe on the court for 13 seasons. ![]() Lakers veteran Carmelo Anthony noted that Kobe’s “energy is always here, especially mentally, we always think about him. Tributes are pouring in from around the sports world. Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, learned about their deaths on social media - hours before she received official confirmation from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, theGrio reported.
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