In the 1996 NBA draft, the Los Angeles Lakers traded for a promising 17-year-old high school kid from Lower Merion High School – Kobe Bryant.
Years later, that kid would become the embodiment of the type of success one can achieve when you mix talent with enviable work ethic.
Bryant’s “Mamba Mentality” paved the way for an illustrious 20-year basketball career that saw him earn five NBA championships, an NBA MVP award, 18 NBA All-Star selections, two Olympic gold medals and adoring fans worldwide.
He retired in 2016 and essayed the role of husband to Vanessa and doting father to four children, including Gianna, or Gigi, who was tipped to continue his basketball legacy.
At 13, she had committed to playing for a famed NCAA program at a university. It wasn’t meant to be.
On the morning of Jan. 26, Bryant and Gigi were two of nine fatalities in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.
The deaths of Bryant, 41, and Gigi plunged the spor¬ting world in a fog of grief, proof of how much the basketball legend impacted the lives of millions of people.