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It may have been years since Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna Bryant and six other friends perished in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, but the people and teammates they left have never forgotten them and continue to honor them every year.
Kobe passed away on January 26, 2020 along with his then 13-year-old daughter Gigi. Along with them in the helicopter that crashed were baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa, as well as Payton Chester and her mother Sara, and basketball coach Christina Mauser.
Now, the eight remaining members of Kobe's AAU team–AKA the little Mambas–gather every year on the same day at the jetty in Newport Beach, California to throw flowers into the ocean to remember Bryant, their teammates and their parents who tragically lost their lives on the fateful day. Each of them drop a flower apiece, and each with a meaning that symbolize their fallen friend, per Washington Post:
A red poppy for Gianna Bryant because red was her favorite color. The bright pink Gerber daisy for Payton Chester. A light pink dahlia for her mother, Sarah. The yellow Gerber daisy for Alyssa Altobelli because she was an Oregon fan. Orange for her father, John, who coached baseball at Orange Coast College. The white hydrangea for his wife and Alyssa’s mother, Keri Altobelli. And a lilac Hawaiian hibiscus for Christina Mauser, the coach whom they called “MOD,” as in mother of defense.
For Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers great known as “The Black Mamba” — and the co-founder and CEO of Mamba Sports Academy, where the girls learned to work on their games and dream their dreams — a light purple and black poppy.
While Kobe Bryant and their teammates and families are gone, the little Mambas continue to make sure they follow the path that the Lakers icon set for them. Kobe had a dream, and despite the fact that he's no longer there to see it come to fruition, it hasn't stopped the girls from pursuing it.
It's certainly bittersweet to see the remaining eight remember their fallen teammates and friends, but it also shows that they haven't forgotten the goal and the dream that they all shared when Kobe started their team.
Here's to hoping that one day, we also see the legacy of Kobe reach the WNBA and spread even more.
