Note: this story was originally written on April 4, 2020.
LOS ANGELES, CA (NCC News) – It has been almost one full month since the helicopter crash in Calabasas, CA that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others. Those eight others include Bryant’s 13-year old daughter Gianna, or Gigi as she was more commonly known.
A memorial service took place inside the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Monday afternoon to honor both Kobe and Gigi.
Performances/speakers at the service included Beyoncé, Jimmy Kimmel, Diana Taurassi, Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu, UConn Coach Geno Auriemma, Lakers GM, Bryant’s former agent, and Gigi’s godfather Rob Pelinka, Kobe’s idol as a child Michael Jordan, Kobe’s Former Teammate Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe’s wife of 20 years and Gigi’s mother, Vanessa Bryant, and others.
There were 20,000 tickets made available to the public for purchase to attend the service, with prices ranging from $24.02 and $224.
The reason as to why those numbers were chosen, as well as the date of the service, is because Gigi wore the number 2 when she played basketball and Kobe wore the number 24 for ten of his 20 seasons with the Lakers.
Proceeds from the ticket sales from the service are being donated to the Mamba and Mambacita Foundation, a foundation that was originally started by Kobe, but was changed to honor Gigi following the crash.
News broke earlier Monday that Vanessa Bryant sued Island Express Helicopters and Island Express Holding Corp. citing that the pilot, Ara Zobayan was negligent by flying the helicopter on the day of the crash. Zobayan was one of the people who died in the crash as well.
