Kobe Bryant Legacy Made its Way into Water

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Photo Courtesy: Annie Grevers
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Tuesday, January 26, marks one year since the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the life of NBA star Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others, including Christina Mauser.

It has been a year since the tragic loss of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others in a horrific helicopter crash.

Bryant is remembered as of the greatest basketball players in history and one of the most well-known athletes in the world. He also had a special respect for other world-class athletes, especially around the Olympics and is remembered fondly within the swimming world.

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Kobe Bryant, with (l-r) Olympic swimming champions Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt – Photo Courtesy: Katie Ledecky, Twitter

When Michael Phelps was chasing the record for gold medals in Beijing in 2008, Bryant was in the stands. He and Phelps made an appearance together at the 2018 U.S. National Championships.

Numerous Olympic swimmers have taken photos with Bryant, and they came flowing out on social media one year ago as the sports world grieved the loss of one of the world’s greatest living athletes.

With the Lakers, Bryant won five NBA titles and is the fourth-highest scorer in NBA history. He won two Olympic gold medals, part of Team USA in 2008 and 2012.

He retired in 2016 and won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Dear Basketball.

Bryant was around the water more than watching swimming in the Olympics.

In 2017, he presented at the Golden Goggle Awards, and jokingly — or not — tried to coax Phelps into coming back from retirement.

 

 

He swam with great white sharks in 2013, a memory that was lasting for Bryant as well as the crew he went with.

“He dove with us. He just did one dive, he saw two different sharks,” shark conservationist Martin Graf told Insider. “I talked to him a long time about him growing up Europe … he told me when growing up in Italy, where his dad took him, he was always fascinated with sharks.”

In fact, his love of sharks led to the Marine Conservation Science Institute naming the No. 24 shark on their Guadalupe Island database “Kobe Bryant” in honor of Bryant’s jersey number.

It is difficult to believe it has been a whole year since the crash, but the memories involving Kobe’s love for the water, swimming, the Olympics and even great white sharks will live on.

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