UConn Tribute Gianna Maria Onore Bryant and Kobe Bryant
The UConn Huskies Honor Gianna Maria Onore Bryant With No. 2 Jersey
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Shamika Sanders/ @Shamika_Sanders
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January 28, 2020
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Gianna Maria Onore Bryant, Kobe Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter who perished alongside him in the tragic helicopter that claimed nine lives, was honored by her dream school last night. The UConn Huskies honored Gianna, a.k.a Gigi, with a customized No. 2 jersey and flowers that laid over a chair on the team’s bench. They posted the photo on social media with the caption, “Mambacita is forever a Husky.”
The game began with a tribute to Kobe Bryant. “Team USA held the ball for an eight-second backcourt violation in honor of Bryant’s first jersey number in the NBA. Then the Huskies held the ball and ran out the 24-second shot clock as a tribute to his second number,” ESPN reported. A photo of Kobe and Gianna was displayed on the jumbotron.
In a post-game press conference, coach of the Huskies, Geno Auriemma recalled Gianna’s excitement when she first met the Huskies under the Huskies program. It was her dream to play for the NCAA division team.
“First time they were at a game — you know the old saying — she was like a little kid, looking up at our players,” he emotionally reminisced. “You could just see the look in her eyes. She was just so excited.
“Now, imagine the absurdity of that — that your father’s Kobe Bryant and the most excited you’ve been in a long time is being around college women’s basketball players. But that’s what it meant to her. That was what she aspired to be.
“You could just see the look in her eyes. She was so excited,” Auriemma said. “That’s what she aspired to be.”
Bryant was a devoted and loving father to all his daughters and bragged about how proud he was to have little girls. ESPN Sports anchor Elle Duncan described her encounter she had with Bryant years ago at ESPN, where he raved about being the father of all girls.
“Girls are the best,” he said. “Just be grateful you’ve been given that gift because girls are amazing.” He mentioned that his wife Vanessa Bryant wanted to have another child to try for a boy, but she knew she might have another girl. “I would have five more girls if I could. I am a girl dad,” he proudly stated.
He raved about how his oldest daughter being an accomplished volley ball player and praised GiGi for being a monster in basketball.
“That middle one, he said, ‘She’s a beast,” he said. “She’s better than I was at her age. She’s got it.”
Kobe Bryant filed for the trademark “Mambacita” a month before their sudden death.
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The UConn Huskies Honor Gianna Maria Onore Bryant With No. 2 Jersey was originally published on ionehellobeautiful.staging.go.ione.nyc
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