Months after Kobe Bryant tragically passed away with his 13 year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash, his wife Vanessa is speaking out to pay tribute to him on the fourth anniversary of his legendary 60-point “farewell” performance.
Daily Mail reported that Bryant is still the oldest NBA player to score sixty points in a game, doing so four years ago.
“My husband worked his a** off for 20 years. Gave it his all,” Vanessa wrote in an emotional Instagram post. “All he wanted was to spend time with our girls and me to make up for lost time. He wanted to be there for every single milestone and special moment in our girls lives.”
Vanessa, who has been left to raise the couple’s three surviving daughters alone, went on to lament that “life truly isn’t fair.”
“He only got to enjoy 3 years and 9 months of retirement,” she continued. “We had 2 more daughters, he won an Oscar, he opened Granity studios, he became a 5x best selling author and coached Gianna’s basketball team in that time. She worked hard and gave her all 7 days a week just like her daddy. I wish I could [go] back to that morning, every day. I wish they had a normal local game on 1/26. Life truly isn’t fair. This is just senseless.”
Vanessa’s post included highlights from the final game of Bryant’s career, in which he scored 60 points for the sixth time.
Bryant and Gianna were among nine people who died in a helicopter crash on January 26 as they headed to a youth basketball game.
Vanessa has been self-quarantining with her three daughters ever since California issued a shelter-in-place order last month due to the coronavirus pandemic. Over the weekend, she also shared photos of her family’s Easter celebration, indicating that they are trying to stay positive as much as possible.
Earlier this month, Vanessa paid tribute to her late husband inducted into the NBA Hall Of Fame.
“Obviously, we wish that he was here with us to celebrate,” Vanessa Bryant said at the time. “But it’s definitely the peak of his NBA career and every accomplishment that he had as an athlete was a steppingstone to be here. So we’re incredibly proud of him.”
What Vanessa and her family are going through right now is nothing short of unimaginable. All we can do is keep the entire Bryant family in our thoughts and prayers, and hope that they are able to find some peace.
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