Joe Bryant, father of Kobe Bryant, passes away from stroke four years following son’s plane crash.
Still, Kobe—who also shared daughters Natalia, 21, Bianka, 7, and Capri, 5 with Vanessa—once shared valuable advice he received from his father after playing poorly during a tournament early on in his basketball career.
“My father gave me a hug and said, ‘Listen, whether you score 0 or you score 60, I’m gonna love you no matter what,’” Kobe recalled on The School of Greatness podcast in 2018. “That is the most important thing that you can say to a child. Because from there, I was like, ‘Okay.’ That gives me all the confidence in the world to fail. I have the security there.”
As he put it, his father’s words were encouraging throughout his career.
“I just went to work,” he added. “I just stayed with it. And I kept practicing. Kept practicing. Kept practicing.”
Keep reading for a look at the Bryant family’s sweetest moments together.