Kobe Bryant tributes: Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Garner reflect on loss of the basketball great two years after he died with daughter Gianna, 13, in a helicopter crash
The two year anniversary of the death of Los Angeles basketball great Kobe Bryant fell on Wednesday.
The athlete died at age 41 alongside his daughter Gianna, 13, and nine others in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California when fog obscured the pilot’s view.
And the likes of Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Garner took to social media to share tributes for the beloved hoops dynamo who played for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996 until 2016.
Jennifer Garner paid homage to the lives and legacies of Kobe and his daughter Gianna, who was just 13 at the time of her death, by sharing a snap of the father-daughter duo with her 11.9million Instagram followers.
She tagged Kobe’s widow Vanessa Bryant in the post, along with two heart emojis.
Vanessa has been sharing tributes to her late husband and daughter all month on Instagram.
One from three days ago showed a pH๏τo of her kissing Kobe on the lips as he held one of their children on the court of a Lakers game. All she wrote in the caption was ’81.’
Vanessa’s close friend Ciara shared an image of herself with Kobe’s jersey as she wore wrist bands with Gigi Bryant’s name on it.
Jerry West mourned the death of Bryant in an interview with the New York Times.
West, 83, now a consultant with the Los Angeles Clippers, said Kobe ‘was just one of those unique players that comes along.’
West added: ‘He had a big personality. He was very bright. He was going to be a bigger success off the court than on the court. He was taken away too young.’
‘It was like – I lost my best friend. I lost someone who meant more to me than just a basketball player. For three days I might be doing something – I might be hitting golf balls or chipping golf balls or putting golf balls – and honestly, I would just have to stop.’
West said that two years later, it’s still difficult not to be reminded of the day Bryant died.
