A young Kobe Bryant fan may have taken one of the last photos of the NBA legend on the Saturday before his tragic death .
13-year-old Brady Smigiel and his twin brother Beau were both playing in the Mamba Cup last weekend.
The young boys woke up thinking “Let’s go see Kobe before our games,” their mother Dionne Reich Smigiel told CNN .
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“They are both obsessed with basketball and big fans of Kobe,” she continued. “Brady was writing to our ‘family text’ group all day.”
“When we are in Newport Beach, Brady makes me drive by Kobe’s gate just in hopes he might be driving out at the same time,” Smigiel added.
On Saturday, Bryant was at the Mamba Academy to coach his daughter Gianna’s team, the Lady Mambas, who were also competing in the Mamba Cup.
Gianna’s team lost that game 46-29 to Cyfair Nikecoop 2024.
Brady spotted Bryant and asked him for a selfie.
“He said Kobe was ‘mad they lost’ and wouldn’t take a pic but gave him knuckles,” she explained.
Brady got another chance to ask for the NBA star for selfie after Gianna’s second game, which they won over Tree of Hope Lloyd team.
The second attempt turned out to be pretty blurry.
“Kobe said, ‘We’ll get a better pic tomorrow,’ ” Smigiel recalled.
Of course, Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others would die tragically in a helicopter accident the very next day.
The Smigiel family was shocked at the news.
“We are struggling. Kobe was such a presence in our little community of Newbury Park. My boys don’t know how to process this. I woke up on Sunday and heard there was a helicopter crash in Calabasas and said to my family, “Oh, my gosh, a helicopter just went down at the same time Kobe is supposed to arrive in Camarillo. Pray it’s not him and Gigi. Then an hour later we got the news. It’s just all so sad,” she concluded.
