"He had a big impact on the world of sports," Auriemma said. Auriemma said Bryant left his mark in many other ways. Nobody could score on him for 20 years, and he's asking me about defensive drills."Īuriemma said he thought Bryant was just getting started with what he could have contributed to women's basketball, with his daughter's involvement. "I said, 'What? Didn't you pay attention all those years at practice?' He said, 'I've got to teach my team man-to-man defense tonight.' All right.
"We talked about what defensive drills to do," Auriemma said. He also said Bryant, while coaching his daughter, once sought a bit of advice. This is their off day, and he's in there killing it.'" I just shook my head and said, 'That's why he is who he is. We played against each other in high school."Īuriemma also remembered watching Bryant work out by himself on off days at the Olympics, which he competed in with the 20 teams, and seeing him make "shot after shot after shot after shot after shot. It was really kind of a neat conversation. Like Auriemma, Bryant was fluent in Italian.Īsked for one of his fondest memories of Bryant, Auriemma said, "Probably when we were talking in Italian at one of the competitions.
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Bryant was born in Philadelphia but spent part of his youth in Italy, where his father played professional basketball. "When she came up here on campus, if she could have stayed, I think she would have stayed."Īuriemma is originally from Italy but grew up in the Philadelphia area. She was so excited," Auriemma said of Gigi's excitement to meet the Huskies, who in turn were starstruck by her father. "You could just see the look in her eyes. That wasn't easy."Īuriemma said he met Gigi a few years ago, when she came with her father to a UConn basketball game.
"You've gotta put on a happy face, and you've gotta do what you've gotta do. "You've all these kids back with their families," he said.
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All of that, plus preparing for the game, kept Auriemma busy, but then his thoughts would drift back to Kobe and Gianna. The Huskies had back members of their 20 national championship teams, along with several USA Basketball players from UConn. Then the Huskies held the ball and ran out the 24-second shot clock as a tribute to his second number. The game started with two more tributes to Bryant, as Team USA held the ball for an eight-second backcourt violation in honor of Bryant's first jersey number in the NBA. Auriemma and members of both teams and coaching staffs were visibly moved by a 24-second moment of silence that was observed in honor of Bryant's No. The XL Center jumbotron featured a photo of Bryant and Gigi together at a game. Mambacita is forever a Husky 💙 /3wdAbdK0Ye- UConn Women's Hoops January 27, 2020 "You don't know what to do or what to say." "You can't react to something like that and say, 'Well, this is what you do when this happens,'" Auriemma said in addressing Bryant's and Gigi's deaths after his Huskies fell 79-65 to the U.S. 2 UConn jersey with flowers on their bench in tribute to Gigi and on social media referred to her as "forever a Husky." Bryant and Gigi died in a helicopter crash with seven others on Sunday in Calabasas, California. UConn and USA Basketball honored both father and daughter at the start of an exhibition game Monday at XL Center. She was just 13 but considered UConn her dream college. He also remembered Bryant's daughter Gianna being so smitten with the Huskies program that she hoped to play for one day that she wanted to stick around campus after a visit. UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma fondly recalled speaking Italian with Kobe Bryant and joking with the NBA legend about asking for defensive strategy.
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