The demise of NBA legend Kobe Bryant which occurred on Sunday, January 26, 2020, took the world by storm as many couldn’t believe, especially this fan who managed to take a last picture of Kobe a day before he entered the helicopter.
When Brady Smigiel, 13, captured a blurry selfie with his idol, Kobe Bryant, on Saturday at the Mamba Sports Academy, he didn’t know it probably would be one of the last photos of the NBA legend alive.
Just the day after, Bryant and his daughter Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, along with 7 other people.
Apparently, Brady, who played in the Mamba Cup for Team Edge last weekend along with his twin brother, Beau, woke up thinking “Let’s go see Kobe before our games,” his mother Dionne Reich Smigiel told CNN.
On Saturday, Kobe was at the Mamba Academy to coach Gianna’s team, the Lady Mambas, which was also competing in the Mamba Cup.
After Gianna’s first game, which her team lost 46-29 to Cyfair Nikecoop 2024, Brady came forward and asked Kobe for a selfie.”He said Kobe was ‘mad they lost’ and wouldn’t take a pic but gave him knuckles,” Smigiel said.
Gianna was scheduled to have games at noon and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, she said.
Two other girls in the helicopter that crashed on Sunday, Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, were also part of that team.
Brady got another chance to ask for a Kobe selfie after the Mambas second game, which they won over Tree of Hope Lloyd team, as the basketball great was leaving the building.
It turned out to be pretty blurry. “Kobe said, ‘We’ll get a better pic tomorrow,’ ” Smigiel said.
Only for Smigiel’s family to hear of Kobe’s death on the very day he was supposed to take a better selfie with Kobe Bryant.
See the last photo of Kobe Bryant which was taken by Smigiel below:
