Vanessa Bryant, wife of the late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, posted a tribute on Instagram on his birthday on Friday – the day before Mamba Day.
Former LA shooting guard Kobe Bryant, an 18-time All-Star and five-time champion who played all 20 of his professional seasons with the Lakers, adopted the nickname “Mamba” in the early 2000s to separate his professional and personal life.
In January 2020, he and his daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. All nine people on board died in the crash that day.
Four years earlier, in 2016, then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti declared August 24th – the day after Kobe Bryant’s birthday – as Kobe Bryant “Mamba” Day. The date also honors his iconic jersey numbers 8 and 24, which coincide with the date 8/24. After his death, the Orange County Board of Supervisors officially declared August 24th as “Kobe Bryant Day.”
On August 23, Kobe Bryant’s 46th birthday, Vanessa Bryant posted a photo of herself and him on Instagram with the caption, “Happy birthday @kobebryant. I love you now, forever, and always. ❤️” The song “No Ordinary Love” by Sade was playing alongside the photo.
Several celebrities and athletes commented their support with heart emojis, including Kris Jenner, Ciara and LaLa, among others.
Vanessa Bryant also posted several Instagram Reels to her story, many of them featuring murals of Kobe and Gigi throughout Los Angeles. A few days ago, she posted a flyer for the second annual Mamba League Invitational basketball tournament, which draws high school players from across the country. Nike’s two-day tournament was “inspired by the Mamba Mentality while celebrating Kobe’s lasting legacy.”
(Ringo Chiu via AP
On Saturday, the iconic 90-foot-tall Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier will be lit up in honor of Mamba Day, local station ABC7 reports. It will spell out the letters “LA + ❤ + 24” and “LA + ❤ + 8,” highlighting players’ numbers. The lights will flicker in various patterns and depictions in gold and purple, the colors of the city’s basketball team.
Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, the family charity run by Vanessa that works to fund sports programs for underserved athletes, announced the nonprofit’s LA Royal collection last week to “celebrate Kobe’s upcoming 46th birthday and Mamba Day.”
Newsweek reached out to Mamba and the Mambacita Sports Foundation via email on Saturday for comment.
On August 2, the Lakers and the Bryant family unveiled a statue outside Crypto.com Arena depicting Kobe and Gianna as they appeared at the last Lakers game they both attended courtside: a win over the Dallas Mavericks on December 29, 2019.
