Getty Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa Bryant have four kids.
A selfie photo taken on Saturday may have been one of Kobe Bryant‘s last photos.
13-year-old Brady Smigiel apparently got the Black Mamba to take the picture on Saturday at Bryant’s Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks, California.
According to an article via New York Post’s Ben Feuerherd, Smiegel was playing in a basketball tournament on Saturday where Bryant was coaching his daughter Gianna’s team.
Here’s a look at the photo, which comes courtesy of Rachel Kim of CBS2.
13yo Brady Smigiel took these selfies @MambaSportsHQ on Saturday. Brady says as #KobeBryant was leaving the training facility, he promised to take a picture w/him & his friends on Sunday. Hear from Brady & young athletes from Mamba Sports Academy. It reopened today. @CBSLA 6pm
In the Post’s interview with Smiegel’s mother, she indicated that Brady walked up to Bryant and asked for a photo and Bryant was kind of down after his team lost.
Despite Bryant’s brush off, his mother tells the newspaper that her son still got a picture with the Lakers great; except Bryant didn’t look directly into the camera.
On Bryant’s way out the door, Brady Smigiel asked Bryant again to take a photo and his mother tells the New York Post that Bryant asked him if he was playing in the tournament on Sunday. He told him yes and that he would take a photo with him on Sunday.
A winner of five NBA championships as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, Bryant died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on Sunday when he, his daughter, Gianna and a group of seven other passengers were traveling to a basketball game at Bryant’s Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks, California.
Kobe Bryant was beloved by many for his skill on the basketball court as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. He was also respected as a father. “In these last two days, I have not thought about him with a Laker uniform on in real gapes,” Sacramento Kings scout, Adam Filipi tells Scoop B Radio.
“I just kind of reflected on the tragedy and how nice he was to me, and seeing him behind closed doors in practice. I did not reflect on him being who he is but I could pick two words that scouts look for in players, I would say: professional is a word that I use all the time with him. He was so professional at all times. I mean the way he handled himself with the media, with attention from fans, I mean even Michael Jordan sometimes would say I can’t sign this or doesn’t want to sign autographs…it’s so hard being bigger than life. And he was bigger than life and he handled it extremely well especially for a person who did not want to be in the spotlight that much. So to me, I think he was the star who was professional and capable of handling it the right way instead of falling into the “Hollywood” thing or being just you know, not polite to the media, to fans, to people who wanted something from him. He tried his best to make all his fans happy and the media happy. And he did it with a smile and with just a professional approach.”
With 33,643 points scored, Kobe Bryant is now fourth on the NBA’s career scoring list. In addition to his five NBA Championships, Bryant is a winner of two NBA Finals MVP awards and was the league’s regular-season MVP in 2008. A 20 year NBA vet, Bryant was an 18-time NBA All-Star, four-time NBA All-Star MVP, two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist, an NBA Slam Dunk Champion, 11-time All-NBA First Team recipient, two-time NBA scoring champion and wore numbers 8 and 24, both of which were retired by the Los Angeles Lakers organization.