And when the Oregon Ducks came to Los Angeles to play Southern California, Kobe and Gigi were sit-ting courtside to see Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, the best college player in the country. In the off-season, up-and-coming high school and college stars like Hailey Van Lith would work out at Mamba Academy. In 2019, Kobe stopped by the W headquarters in New York to meet with the league office and discuss the WNBA’s future. Alongside her, of course, would have been Kobe, shining a spotlight on the women’s game. And one piece of the grief was for a future that would now never exist: Gianna Bryant, growing with the game, excelling at different levels. A month later, the two of them, along with seven others, would die in a helicopter crash while traveling to a game at the Mamba Academy. He was pointing out game strategy to his daugh-ter, his arm draped over her shoulder. One of the last images taken of them together was courtside at an NBA game, Kobe wearing the bright orange WNBA hoodie. “There’s no better way to learn than to watch the pros do it,” Kobe told the New York Times after bringing Gianna and her Mamba AAU teammates to watch the Los Angeles Sparks play the Las Vegas Aces.
He was on the sidelines for her games, and they were on the sidelines together to watch the best in the world - the WNBA. Kobe and Gianna were a duo: he, one of the coaches for her AAU team at the Mamba Sports Academy that he helped launch in 2018 she, the heir apparent to his legacy. But what made this so singular was the dad: eighteen-time NBA all-star, and Los Angeles Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant and the daughter, Gianna Bryant, with her sights set on someday playing for Geno Auriemma at the University of Connecticut, then the WNBA afterward. This interaction has played out a million times over the years, between dads and daughters across the world. The scene is both universal and iconic: a father sitting courtside, coaching his young daughter in the game they both love. “It’s a lie that the W doesn’t sell,” Jones told Yahoo! Sports. Over the next year, the hoodie became the best-selling item on the entire Fanatics web-site, as well as the best-selling WNBA item in history. On the opening day of the season, the #orangehoodie was everywhere: on LeBron James, Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard, rapper Lil Wayne, and tennis star Naomi Osaka. Jones, with the help of ESPN, sent out 150 hoodies to men’s players, as well as influ-encers, in advance of the WNBA season. As summer approached, both the NBA and the WNBA planned to play their seasons in single locations that eventually came to be known as “the bubble” and “the wubble” - that is, the women’s bubble. Six weeks after the devastating helicopter crash, the world was hit with the COVID pandemic. And suddenly the hoodie came to mean so much more: it became a symbol of supporting women, investing in women, and honoring the connection that Kobe had with his daughter, as well as with the women’s game.
It was one of the last photos ever taken of him with his daughter. When Kobe and Gianna died, along with seven others, in a helicopter crash less than a month later, that photo of Kobe in the WNBA hoodie was used in thousands of media reports. 29, 2019 just a few weeks before their death in a helicopter crash. Kobe Bryant wears the now iconic orange WNBA hoodie with his daughter Gianna at the Lakers-Mavs game on Dec.
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