Vanessa Bryant gives fans a look inside Kobe Bryant s Hall of Fame exhibit
By Kelli Johnson
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Ahead of Kobe Bryant’s Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, Vanessa Bryant gave fans a preview of the Kobe: Basketball Life, exhibit she helped design at the historic sports museum.
Kobe and Vanessa s surviving daughters Natalia, Bianka, and Capri also joined their mother for the East Coast journey. The girls also honored their sister, Gigi, by wearing their Mambacita gear. Proceeds from the athleisure line, that launched on what would have been Gigi s 15th birthday, will benefit the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation.
Late Lakers Great Bryant Remembered On Eve Of Hall Of Fame Induction
05/14/21 AT 8:20 PM
Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant loomed large Friday on the eve of his posthumous induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame alongside NBA greats Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.
The trio are among nine members of the 2020 Hall of Fame class who are being belatedly inducted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The celebration is being held at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, to better allow for social distancing.
But the actual Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts, is also unveiling a special exhibit honoring Bryant that president John Doleva believes will be come the most talked about exhibit at the shrine.
New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu arrived for Friday's season opener against the Indiana Fever wearing a Kobe Bryant jersey: Ionescu and Bryant were close.
It’s a group of nine being honored on Saturday night: Bryant, Duncan and Garnett are the NBA players going in; 1,000-game winner Barbara Stevens, two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich, three-time NCAA champion coach Kim Mulkey and three-time Final Four coach Eddie Sutton are getting enshrined, along with four-time women’s Olympic gold medalist Tamika Catchings and longtime FIBA executive Patrick Baumann.
Some of them spoke Friday of their modest beginnings and how reflecting on those days made the emotions for this weekend churn even stronger. Stevens said she thought she hit the jackpot when she landed her first coaching job as an assistant at Clark University for $400 in 1976, Tomjanovich said he didn’t feel ready when he was offered the Houston Rockets job; Mulkey talked about her days as a pigtailed girl playing Pony League baseball with the boys in the little Louisiana town where she grew up.