“Lakers”, “World Champions”, “Bryant”. Words are worth more than the gold they are engraved in or the forty diamonds embedded in them. Kobe Bryant gave his father Joe in 2000 this replica of his first championship ring won with the Lakers.
This same ring can be found today on the Goldin auction site. In Los Angeles, where everything related to the idol who died on January 26, 2020 remains a sensitive subject, the choice of Joe and his wife Pam revived memories of sometimes tense relationships within the Bryant family.
When the Lakers drafted the 17-year-old prodigy in 1996, his parents and two sisters accompanied him to Los Angeles. The clan is united. And then, in 1999, young Kobe fell in love with a high school student, Vanessa Laine. Everything goes very quickly between them. Too much for his parents.
“I would have preferred him to take his time,” admits the father. His son suggests that his father and mother would also have preferred a black girlfriend over a Latina one. They skipped the wedding in April 2001. They also did not attend the NBA final a few weeks later, which was played at home in Philadelphia.
Their absence explains the sad face of the player, hugging the Larry O’Brien Trophy in the locker room. Her parents were there the following year when her high school, Lower Merion High School, paid tribute to her, but seated far from Vanessa. Ties strengthened after the birth of Natalia, the couple’s first child, in 2003.
But, ten years later, Bryant discovered dozens of souvenirs, including the ring from 2000 – already -, or a ball signed by the Lakers, put up for auction without his authorization. “When you give, give, GIVE and they take, take TAKE, at what point do you say stop? », asks a “deeply hurt” son on Twitter.
He is suing his father and mother, who accepted an advance of $450,000 to buy a house in Las Vegas. The two camps reach an amicable agreement: Joe and Pam can sell some items but must publicly apologize. Kobe is not forgiving though. In 2016, after a last match played without his parents in the stands, he told ESPN magazine that “our relationships are shit”.
Her tragic death in a helicopter accident brings Vanessa a little closer to her in-laws. In 2021, she invites them to her husband’s induction into the Hall of Fame. “Pam and Joe, thank you for raising Kobe to be great,” she told them. Three years later, they decided to sell one of the gifts left by their child. Buyers have until Saturday, March 30 to raise bids, which are expected to exceed $140,000.
2024-03-28 12:00:00
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