John Calipari thanked Vanessa Bryant and her child, Natalia, after the household sent out the Kentucky coach a bundle to honor Gigi Bryant on what would have been her 17th birthday Monday.
In a video he published on Twitter, Calipari stated he will frame Gigi’s jersey and hang it in his workplace. Gigi and Kobe Bryant both passed away in a helicopter crash in addition to 7 others in 2020.
The plan, by means of the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Structure, consisted of a plaque celebrating Gigi’s birthday, a program from her and her dad’s funeral that was held at the Staples Center, a set of shoes and other presents for the long time coach.
I simply got the most extraordinary present from Vanessa and Natalia Bryant.
Delighted 17th birthday, Gigi !!
Believing today of Gigi and all of the lives she touched and continues to touch!! #PlayGigisWay pic.twitter.com/mruCZIFaop
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) Might 1, 2023
” Vanessa, thank you. Natalia, thank you. I can’t wait to see you people,” Calipari stated in the video. “You understand I value you both. For Gigi’s birthday, to do all this, 17th birthday, you understand my heart heads out to both of you at this time. For you to do this for me, thank you.”
Kobe and Calipari are permanently connected since of the 1996 NBA draft. At the time, Calipari was a first-year head coach with the New Jersey Internet and Kobe was an appealing high school star. In 2015, Calipari and Kentucky males’s basketball partnered with the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Structure to produce an abilities camp for underserved youth in Kentucky.
The Internet, who had the 8th choice in 1996, picked previous Villanova star Kerry Kittles because draft and Bryant went to the Los Angeles Lakers at 13. Calipari stated he ‘d promoted the group to choose Kobe, however he could not get the other power brokers within the franchise to back him. Calipari stated Kobe would later on joke with him that he ‘d “still remain in the NBA” if the Internet had actually picked him.
The Internet fired Calipari in the strike-shortened 1999 NBA season following a 3-17 start.
” Everyone believed I was nuts,” Calipari stated on his radio program 3 years back after Kobe’s and Gigi’s death. “High school kid, he was 17 years of ages.”
Calipari stated the action he obtained from the company was that “you do not understand what you’re doing” since he was so brand-new to the NBA. Other reports have actually stated Bryant and his group had actually informed the Internet he would select to play overseas if the franchise had actually chosen to choose him.