Delving Into Diana Taurasi and Kobe Bryant Relationship

Diana Taurasi spent hours training to be like her idol, Kobe Bryant, only for the twist of fate to be that Gianna Bryant would later learn from her

Madelyn Burke: Diana Ross grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant. She practiced his moves so often that the shot that clinched a Game 3 win in the 2014 WNBA finals was almost as Kobe as it was Diana. As SI Lakers reporter Melissa Rohlin writes, the respect between these two stars was mutual. Melissa, how would you describe the relationship that these two had?

Melissa Rohlin: Well, it's interesting because I think their relationship ended up coming full circle because Diana obviously grew up watching Kobe. She's from Chino. She'd watch every single Laker game, practicing all of Kobe's moves. In fact, every time before she'd left a practice, she'd do his 'game-winner' at least five times. So, she really idolized him. He was her hero. And then eventually, obviously, when Kobe retired in 2016 and he had Gianna, Gianna ended up idolizing Diana. Kobe ended up then reaching out to Diana, asking her for tips in terms of what she was working on when she was 13 years old. He even brought Gianna to a Mercury basketball practice. So it is interesting because the woman who had idolized him then became the idol for his daughter.

Madelyn Burke: Absolutely. I'm sure in your conversations with Diana, that that feeling of 'having your idol's daughter learn from you' must have been a special moment for her.

Melissa Rohlin: Yeah, I think for Diana, Kobe has just always been such a huge, huge advocate of both her and of the women's game, which has resonated for a lot of people. It's interesting because right before Kobe died, in late January, he was interviewed by CNN and he said that a handful of women could actually be doing well right now in the men's game and he named Diana as one of them. So, there was a huge amount of mutual respect there. Obviously, we know that he nicknamed Diana "the White Mamba" after she passed Tina Thompson to be the WNBA is All-Time leading scorer in 2017. They played together in the Olympics in 2008. There is just a lot of mutual respect there. Then she ended up obviously being a huge help to his own daughter.

Madelyn Burke: Absolutely, and Kobe, of course, a huge advocate for women's basketball and Diana saying, hey, Gianna being what we want to see young girls striving to be in the WNBA at some point. Melissa Rohlin, thank you so much for the time.