Sun Devils Women’s Basketball remembers Kobe Bryant’s work ethic, impact
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TEMPE, AZ (KTVK) — Sun Devils Women’s Basketball is mourning the death of NBA icon Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Giana. The two died in a plane crash Sunday morning in California.
“My heart just dropped,” says point guard Reili Richardson. “I was like, no, this can’t be real and I looked up on Twitter and it was everywhere.”
The 21-year-old from California remembers meeting the NBA legend when she was a little girl.
“It was just like, ‘Hey, I want to take a picture with you. Hey, I play basketball. I’m real young. You know, I want to be like you one day,’” says Richardson.
Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne has long inspired her players with the champion’s wisdom. Turner Thorne says she has sent them a few Kobe Bryant interviews.
“The first interview I sent them, you know, there’s no such thing as failure,” says Turner Thorne. “He says that’s a figment of your imagination. There’s no such thing as failure. Everything is just figuring things out.”
Bryan’s daughter Giana was a rising basketball star, and her dad was happy to promote her talent and countless women athletes.
“That really helps us, you know,” says Turner Thorne. “It helps us when the best of the best in the men’s game says, ‘Hey, they’re pretty good.’”
Turner Thorne says the tragedy is helping put things in perspective just as the seasons revs up.
“Especially this time of year, you’re squeezing tight, you’re tired, there’s pressure, there’s all this stuff. You can step back and go, ‘This is just a game,’” says Turner Thorne. “You know, there’s so much more going on out here.”
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