Kobe is surely looking down from above with a smile.
It’s almost surreal that nearly four years have passed since the heartbreaking loss of Lakers icon Kobe Bryant. This week, his wife, Vanessa, shared a throwback photo commemorating their first-ever picture together, exactly 24 years ago as of Monday: “24 years ago… Day 1. #1999,” expressed Bryant in an Instagram post, accompanied by crown and heart emojis. “11/27/99.”
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Vanessa and Kobe first crossed paths on the set of a music video in ’99, during a time when the young Mamba was exploring a rap career. Kobe affectionately recounted this encounter in his 2015 documentary, “Kobe Bryant’s Muse.”
“It was a two-day video shoot, and I was always looking for her. Like, I wanted to know where she was. I would finish a take and then go to my trailer, but I’d wonder where she is the entire time and then come out of the trailer and just want to talk to her some more in between takes and stuff like that. And she wrote her phone number down at the time when you had to still write phone numbers down, and I called her the very next day. We talked for hours.”
The couple eventually tied the knot in 2001 and went on to have four daughters together: Natalia, Gianna, Bianka, and Capri.
Tragically, Kobe and Gianna lost their lives in a helicopter crash in 2020 that also claimed seven other lives. Their legacy endures through Vanessa and the Mambacita Foundation, as well as the countless fans who continue to celebrate everything Kobe contributed to the game.
