Vanessa Bryant is mourning the loss of her husband and daughter.
On Sunday, Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant passed away in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif. The father-daughter duo were two of nine people who died in the crash. Now, Vanessa is paying tribute to her husband and daughter on Instagram, changing her profile photo to a picture of the Los Angeles Lakers legend. In the photo, Gigi can be seen looking up at her father as they share an embrace.
Gigi shared her dad’s passion for basketball and played for the Mamba Academy team. Kobe was the coach of the team and was believed to be traveling to Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks at the time of the crash.
The athlete previous shared the reason for taking helicopters from his home in Orange County, explaining in an interview with Alex Rodriguez that it gave him more time to spend with his family.
“Traffic started getting really, really bad,” Kobe said during the interview. “I was sitting in traffic and I wound up missing like a school play because I was sitting in traffic.”
“This thing just kept mounting, and I had to figure out a way that I could still train and focus on the craft but still not compromise family time,” Kobe explained. “So that’s when I looked into helicopters and being able to get down and back in 15 minutes.”
Our thoughts are with the Bryant family and all of the families affected by this tragedy.