Paying tribute. Vanessa Bryant changed her Instagram profile photo in honor of her late husband, Kobe Bryant, and daughter Gianna on Wednesday, January 29.
Vanessa’s Instagram profile was switched to private on Sunday, January 26, after her husband, 41, and 13-year-old daughter, along with seven other people, died in a helicopter crash.
The 37-year-old has now made her Instagram public and added a new profile picture of the late Lakers star holding and embracing Gianna in their honor. The mother of four has yet to speak out after the fatal accident, which occurred in Calabasas, California, on Sunday.
The couple also shared Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, 7 months.
As previously reported on Sunday, the NBA star and his daughter were en route to the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California, for a basketball game when the helicopter crashed into the hillside, killing all on board.
CBS News revealed the identities of all nine passengers on Monday, January 27. Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Kerry, and daughter Alyssa, who was on Gianna’s basketball team, girls basketball coach Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester, and her daughter Payton, another teammate of Gianna’s, as well as pilot Ara Zobayan were all identified as the remaining victims.
On Tuesday, January 28, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office confirmed to Us Weekly that it recovered all nine victims from the crash site. Hours later, the coroner confirmed the identities of Bryant, John Altobelli, Sarah Chester and Zobyan using fingertips. The office is still working on identifying the remaining victims.
Later on that day, Kobe’s longtime friend and former Lakers teammate Shaquille O’Neal got emotional speaking about the late star in a tribute to him on TNT.
“The fact that we’re not going to be able to joke at his Hall of Fame ceremony. We’re not going to be able to say, ‘Ha, I got you got five, you got four.’ The fact that we’re not going to be able to say, ‘If we would’ve stayed together, we could’ve got 10.’ Those are the things you can’t get back,” O’Neal, 47, said with tears streaming down his face on Tuesday.
The basketball player, who considers all of Kobe’s daughters his nieces, spoke about the last time he saw the athlete, which was at a Lakers game at the Staples Center where he asked Kobe to score 50 points and instead the two-time Olympic gold medalist scored 60.
“That was the last time I spoke to him. I just wish I could’ve — it definitely changes me,” O’Neal said. “I just really have to now just take time and call and say, ‘I love you.’ I’m going to try and do a better job at reaching out and talking to the people rather than always procrastinating, because you never know.”
