Gigi ran point, MacKenly Randolph dominated the post, Altobelli was a strong leader and floor general, and the rest of the roster also had plenty of game. The Mambas featured some of the most talented girls’ basketball players in California. She cherishes the memories, shutting them out when they hurt too much but inviting them back when she feels ready. “He always talked about some day the ball is going to stop bouncing, and you want to leave your mark on the world in other ways, too, so people will remember you,” she says. To think about what you want your legacy to be, how you want people to know you. She remembers how Kobe taught her to think beyond basketball. She remembers how Kobe had texted her and asked her for her shoe size the week before the accident, because he was going to send her a fresh pair. She has a shrine in her bedroom for Kobe: his jersey, his shoes, a signed basketball, and their photos together. The 15-year-old has a “Mamba Mentality” tattoo on the outside of her left foot that she got after the accident, reminding her to lock in before the game.

“I was so blown away by his knowledge of the game, and how he wanted to share that with all the girls.” “I was shocked when he took me under his wing like he did, not being on his team,” Shamblin says. They’d challenge each other to one-on-one when the court was clear. They became friends Kobe felt she had that “it” factor. He called her “Lucky Lefty.” Kobe started watching Brooklyn train at Mamba Sports Academy, the Thousand Oaks training facility he cofounded in 2018, where the Storm sometimes practiced, and would come to her games. She played on rival team Cal Storm but considered Gigi a little sister, Kobe a mentor. “They touched the world,” Zach Randolph says.īrooklyn Shamblin was one of those people. For those still playing on the team, it’s a raw and painful memory. They were on their way to a Mamba basketball game that morning. It’s been one year since the tragic helicopter crash took the lives of nine members of the Mambas community: Kobe, 41, and Gigi, 13 Alyssa Altobelli, 14, and her parents, John, 56, and Keri Altobelli, 46 teammate Payton Chester, 13, and her mother, Sarah Chester, 45 assistant coach Christina Mauser, 38 and pilot Ara Zobayan, 50. The types of memories that players and coaches from the team formerly known as the Mambas relive, as if by playing them in their minds they can somehow preserve those who were lost.

These are the types of memories that remain. We don’t wanna bother you!” Moorhouse told Kobe. Moorhouse didn’t want to impose or act like he was trying to take advantage of Kobe: “No, man, it’s really OK. Matt Moorhouse, Santiago’s head coach, couldn’t believe it when Kobe offered to attend one of the team’s practices. He once spent several hours teaching Santiago High’s boys’ and girls’ basketball coaches the intricacies of the triangle offense, carefully explaining to the staff how it could even be run against a zone. He was trying to forge strong bonds within the basketball community. Giving back to the game he loved so much gave Kobe joy: traveling to high schools in the Orange County area to sit in on practices, befriending local coaches whom he had no connection to. He recorded a video for a local high school girls’ coach in Orange County who had been diagnosed with cancer. He invited some to work out with WNBA players he knew. Remember, you have to flash higher if you want to turn, catch, and face more effectively, he’d tell them. I was just thinking about that one move you did the other day. He texted many of them with advice, randomly dropping in little nuggets.

He mentored players on rival eighth grade AAU teams and high schools. Kobe’s love for girls’ basketball extended far beyond his own team.

Kobe bryant and gigi