Vanessa and Natalia Bryant appeared on ESPN Saturday after the announcement that Kobe Bryant has been officially named an inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
In a solemn interview with reporter Rece Davis, Vanessa Bryant, sitting beside 17-year-old daughter Natalia, spoke of her late husband’s accomplishments in the NBA.
“Obviously, we wish that he was here with us to celebrate…We’re incredibly proud of him, and there’s some solace in knowing that he was probably going to be a part of the 2020 Hall of Fame class,” she said.
The Lakers legend’s fellow NBA players Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett were also among the nine inductees in this year’s Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Bryant died on Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash in Calabasas with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people aboard the aircraft.
Vanessa Bryant first publicly addressed Kobe and Gianna’s deaths in a eulogy at a Staples Center memorial in February.
“God knew they couldn’t be on this Earth without each other,” she said. “He had to bring them home to heaven together.”