5 Things You May Not Know
Daniel Davis
Gianna "Gigi" Bryant was, like her dad, a star basketball player, and many people thought she could go all the way. The second-oldest of the Bryant girls, she was just 13 when she passed away. According to the New York Post, Gianna and Kobe watched basketball every night and traveled all over the country to attend basketball games.
"Gigi was really turning into a special player," Russ Davis, the women's basketball coach at Vanguard University, told the Associated Press. "It's hard to predict her future, but with the way she was improving and the way she understood the game, she was going to have a bright one."
Gianna planned to play college ball at the University of Connecticut and then head to the WNBA. "From what I saw, she was going to be heaps better than me," said WNBA player Gabby Williams. "She had the right mentality, so confident, relentless, so mean and aggressive. And then (she would) walk off the court with the biggest, sweetest smile on her face. But my favorite part about her was just seeing how much she loved the game and loved to learn."