Kobe Bryant’s Former Coach Says NBA Star Was Close to His Family

*Kobe Bryant’s former coach, Wayne Slappy, opened up about the Bryant family’s grief in a January interview with the Daily Mail.

We reported earlier, Slappy recounted where he was when he first heard the news about the deaths of Kobe and his daughter Gianna.

“I was just finishing training kids up in the Pacific Palisades,” he said. “When I got in the car I got the text message. Then I started getting phone call after phone call. I tried to call Jellybean [Kobe’s father Joe Bryant], he didn’t answer, and that doesn’t happen.”

“I just sat in the parking lot at Costco crying for an hour,” Slappy continued.

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“Can you imagine a black hole? It’s empty, how do you fill it? They’re a close-knit family. He was 41 years old, and then his daughter dies in an accident with him too,” he noted bout the Bryant family grief. “His family are going to miss him more than you can begin to imagine.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Slappy dished about Kobe’s relationship with his family.  

“I know NBA players whose kids can’t stand them, they never spent any time with them. That ain’t Kobe,” he told the Daily Mail. “He grew up with his family loving each other. He was doing the same thing his father did for him, for his daughters, to the best of his ability.”

“Plus all the other things he was trying to do to occupy his great intelligence, his ability to speak and express himself and create images that were going to help people. His understanding of basketball’s importance was bigger than just basketball,” he added. “He was very intelligent, Spanish and Italian. He could talk to you about any subject and have a conversation that was intelligent about it.”

Kobe and his parents were close growing up and through most of his NBA career, but they had a huge falling out in 2013 after the family tried selling his memorabilia.

Joe and Pam, who were not invited to Kobe’s wedding in 2001, were also not invited to his final NBA game before he retired.

“Everybody’s family has issues, disagreements here and there. The healing comes, but this healing is going to be hard because he’s not here,” Slappy said.

 

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