Vanessa Bryant Says Her Daughter Gianna Will Be An Honorary WNBA Draft Pick

Gianna, who died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, dreamed of playing in the WNBA.

Vanessa Bryant said her 13-year-old daughter Gianna, along with Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, will be honored during Friday's WNBA draft as honorary picks. 

All three girls died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26 along with Kobe Bryant as they were headed to the Mamba Sports Academy, where Kobe was going to coach a youth basketball game. 

Vanessa posted a video on Instagram on Friday promoting the WNBA draft, which will take place at 4 p.m. PT on ESPN, and wrote: "Honorary Draft Picks:❤️Gianna Bryant❤️ ❤️ Alyssa Altobelli and Peyton Chester❤️ class of 2024."

Gianna dreamed of playing in the WNBA.

In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel in 2018, Kobe said that he laughed at anyone who worried his legacy wasn't going to be continued because he had four daughters. 

"The best thing that happens is when we go out, and fans will come up to me and she'll be standing next to me, and they'll be like, 'You gotta have a boy, you and [Vanessa] gotta have a boy, man, to have somebody carry on the tradition, the legacy,'" Bryant told Kimmel. "And [Gianna] will be like ‘Oy, I got this. We don’t need a boy for that. I got this.'”

After Kobe retired in 2016 from a 20-season NBA career with the Lakers in which he won five NBA championships, he relived his love of basketball through Gianna's eyes. 

She told him she wanted to learn the game. He took that responsibility very seriously. 

He would take her to NBA games and discuss strategy. He reached out to University of Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma to ask for coaching tips. He even called Michael Jordan and asked him what moves he was practicing when he was 12 years old. 

"I said [at age] 12, I was trying to play baseball,'" Jordan said at Kobe's and Gianna's public memorial at Staples Center on Feb. 24. "[Kobe] sends me a text back saying, 'Laughing my ass off.'"

When the Bryant family took a trip with Lakers' general manager Rob Pelinka and his family to Cabo when Kobe turned 40, a year before he died, Kobe spent much of the trip pouring over game film of his daughter. 

"What was the one thing Kobe wanted to do in this heavenly setting?" Pelinka asked. "Watch Team Mamba game film with Gigi and me, of course, breaking down every play."

Kobe and Gianna were inseparable. 

Vanessa said their love for each other extended so deep that there was no way they could live without one another. 

"God knew they couldn't be on this earth without each other," Vanessa said. "He had to bring them home to heaven together."