LA bids Kobe emotional final farewell

After Jimmy Kimmel welcomed the crowd, Vanessa Bryant provided a poignant window into the family's life with Gianna and her three sisters－Natalia, Bianka and Capri. She emphasized Kobe Bryant's paternal devotion, which had only grown after his retirement from the Lakers.

"God knew they couldn't be on this Earth without each other," said Vanessa Bryant, who had been with Kobe since 1999. "He had to bring them home to have them together. Babe, you take care of our Gigi. And I got Nati, Bibi and Coco. We're still the best team."

Vanessa Bryant was followed on the podium by basketball stars Diana Taurasi and Sabrina Ionescu and University of Connecticut women's coach Geno Auriemma. Kobe Bryant was a passionate advocate for women's basketball, and Gigi Bryant was a promising young player who aspired to play at UConn.

"If I represented the present of the women's game, Gigi represented the future, and Kobe knew it," said Ionescu, the Oregon star who was mentored by Bryant.

Pelinka referred to the day of the crash as "when the axis of the world seemed to shift forever, for all of us". Pelinka was also Gigi Bryant's godfather, and the families were close.

He revealed that Bryant had texted him asking for help in getting an internship with a baseball agent for teenager Alexis Altobelli, who lost her parents and younger sister in the crash.

"Kobe lived to make other people's lives better, all the way up to his final text," Pelinka said.

Jordan, the Chicago Bulls star whose career was wrapping up as Bryant's was starting in the late 1990s, praised Bryant as "one of my dear friends. He was like a little brother. ... As I got to know him, I wanted to be the best big brother that I could be."