Kobe Bryant’s ex-teammate Pau Gasol and Khloe Kardashian paid moving tributes to the legendary basketball player on what would have been his 45th birthday, as Vanessa Bryant, wife of the late Los Angeles Lakers star remembered him on her Instagram.
Bryant won five NBA championships and was an NBA all-star 18 times in his career and should have celebrated his 45th birthday on Wednesday 23rd August but tragically, he died in January 2020 when a helicopter carrying the career-long Los Angeles Lakers forward-guard crashed in Calabasas, California.
The news shocked the sports world and tributes have never failed to be paid to the Black Mamba, who created and gave so many memories to those who knew him and watched him.
Meanwhile Gasol, who played for the Lakers between 2008-2014 in a successful partnership with Kobe, visited a shrine dedicated to the Bryant and uploaded a selfie of the feature.
Gasol captioned the photo, “Happy birthday brother”, with a love-heart emoji as the hall-of-fame inductee no doubt remembered their chemistry that won the pair back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and 2010.
Gasol was a five-time NBA all-star for the Lakers before adding one more with the San Antonio Spurs and was so significant to the LA basketball club that they retired his shirt.
He averaged 17 points-per-game, 9.2 rebounds-per-game and 3.2 assists-per-game and helped lead Spain to three Olympic medals in basketball, including two silvers, between 2008-2016.
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Further tributes to the NBA star
On his birthday, his wife Vanessa, posted a carousel of the couple highlighting their love for each other.
She received many messages of support with reality-TV star-turned businesswoman Khloe Kardashian posted series of love heart emojis to show Bryant that she was in her thoughts. Other celebrities paying homage to the all-time great included: Jeanie Buss, Lamar Odom, Kris Jenner and Zoe Saldana.
