Lakers' GM Rob Pelinka pens tribute to Kobe Bryant, Gianna

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Los Angeles Lakers GM Rob Pelinka on Thursday issued a heart-wrenching statement remembering Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, saying their loss “has been an amputation of part of my soul.”

In his first public statement since Sunday’s tragic helicopter crash in California, Pelinka mourned his “best friend” Bryant, 41, and “sweet goddaughter” Gianna.

Pelinka, 50, who was Bryant’s agent prior to joining the Lakers, said the NBA legend was “a force of nature, deep and obsessed with excellence.”

“He was wise, determined, passionate. A visionary beyond measure,” Pelinka said.

In addition to being “the most inspirational athlete of our time,” Bryant was “a dedicated and loving husband” and dad “like no other” to his four daughters.

The second of Bryant’s girls, Gianna “Gigi” Bryant, was “pure joy,” said Pelinka.

“She was brilliant, kind and warm,” Pelinka said. “And, like her dad, when she stepped onto the basketball court, she took on an entirely different nature, and boy could she play.”

“Her basketball destiny was apparent, and the world knew it.”

The teenager was friends with Pelinka’s son and daughter who “always left time with Gigi feeling better about life itself.”

“Everything Gigi stood for, I am so proud of,” Pelinka said.

Paying tribute to all nine victims of the crash, Pelinka wrote that he’s learned, “life on this side of eternity will never be the same.”

“For any of us who knew them, there is an irreplaceable void left behind.”

Pelinka ended his message on a hopeful note, saying that the “heavy sorrow” he feels for Bryant’s widow Vanessa, 37, and their three surviving daughters, Natalia, Bianka, and Capri and the other victims will “slowly [be] redeemed into something healed and new.”

“I am coming to realize that nothing can separate any of us from the love and inspiration we’ve received from Kobe and Gianna, nothing at all,” he said.

“Kobe and Gigi’s legacies will live on — and gain even more power and influence,” Pelinka vowed.

“All of us touched by them will now try to become torch carriers of their legacies,” he added. “And, while we do that, we can be certain of this: Kobe and Gigi will continue on, forever, playing a joy-filled game of basketball in heaven above.”

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