Women’s basketball players reflect on Kobe Bryant’s impact on their game five years after his death – Wkmg News 6 & Clickorlando

Dearica Hamby is still smiling in the memory of Kobe Bryant, who sits at Wnba Games’s Courside.

She had met him years ago. He came to see her old team, ace in Las Vegas, playing all the time.

“I think one of the first things you told me is that I can play defense,” I have a hamboe. “And I was something like” what? “… This is something I will appreciate with me forever. “

This embodies the relationship of the late NBA Great with the game of women. After the end of his 20-year playing career, Bryant focused his focus on the next generation, instructing some of the biggest stars of women’s basketball, from the WNBA champion and Olympic gold medalist Diana Tauri to former Oregon star Sabrina Ionezu.

He works with them, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of their game, and insisted that they reach the same heights as he and his NBA peers.

For Hambby, now with Sparks in Los Angeles, Bryant saw an aspect of her game, which she didn’t even know she had.

“If Kobe tells you that you can play defense, you can play defense,” she said.

Five years after Bryant, 13-year-old daughter Jana and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Kalabasas, California, several female basketball players reflect on what he means in their game and how he supports him. Many of them thought that Bryant would be pleased with the overall progress of women’s sports, which in recent years have popped up in popularity and have reached so far.

This growth is the most exhausted to the basketball arenas of women, which Brant and Jana loved so much.

WNBA last season had its most watched regular season in 24 years and its best attendance in 22 seasons. Some of the most popular players in the League are currently competing in New League 3 in 3 in South Florida, called unsurpassed, founded by Olympic gold medalists, Nafesa Collier and Brea Stewart.

“We continue this for him,” Satu Sabali said, forward with the wings of Dallas of WNBA, who plays for the Phantom squad in unsurpassed. “He would be proud of this league. He would be proud of “Phe and Stewie. I know he looks down and I hope he smiles and is proud of us. “

Sabali said she was still emotional when she was thinking of this day on January 26, 2020. It reminds her of her play days in Oregon when she, Yonescu and their teammates from Bryant -related ducks.

“I think about … how we all contacted Kobe and how we contacted for the rest of our lives because he was so impactful,” Sabali added. “He was really a man who saw us women as talents as we were. He came to the games, he was so honest and really supportive. “

The shock of the death of superstar echoed in the worlds of sports and entertainment, with many embarking on social media to publish emotional respect for Bryant while expressing their unbelief.

People were glued to their phones and television screens as news about the distribution of the crash. NBA players were in tears before the matches that day.

“I still remember exactly where I was always when we heard the news,” said Kate Martin of Golden State Valkyries, playing for lace in B. I think this is just one of those things where you just always remember where you were when you’ve heard this. “

Martin never met Bryant, but said she appreciated his mentality – he had a ruthless competitiveness – and the way he raised women’s sports.

Bryant got involved with the trips of his daughters’ hoops and trained Jana’s youth team. He was often at women’s basketball games, especially in college, with Jana, who was fascinated by Uconn’s Huski. Jana was on the line for Bryant’s more legacy on the court. The plan was to attend Connecticut and certainly WNBA was next.

Bryant was passionate about women’s sports, despite the conviction of some that he should not participate in the women’s game at all for accusation in 2003, accusing him of sexual assault on a 19-year-old employee in a resort in Colorado.

Bryant had said that the two had a consensus sex, and in the end the prosecution was eliminated when the woman refused to testify to the test. Later, the woman filed a civil claim against Bryant, who was settled outside the court.

There is an image that is still distributed in the sports world to this day: Kobe and Jana sat in the 2019 game court with the participation of his Los Angeles Lakers. He wore a bright orange sweater with a white WNBA logo in front. Jana was sitting on the side.

“I think many people started following Kobe because he recognized our gift and our talent, and how special he really was,” said Chicago Sky Chief Coach Teresa Wecherpoon, the current Vinyl coach of Unnived. “And his daughter was right there. “

This is what Bryant had become – a face of intercession for sports women.

“He missed a lot,” Martin said. “But now his inheritance will live forever.”

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Ap wnba: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball