Kobe Bryant touched numerous lives in his storied basketball profession and he continues to take action even after his passing.
Pau Gasol, his former teammate in Lakers and his good pal off the court docket, shared that Bryant is one in every of his inspirations for pushing forth girls’s basketball and girls empowerment in sports activities generally.
Before he died, Bryant was a robust advocate of ladies’s basketball, hoping to create the identical alternatives for his daughter, Gigi – who handed away with him in 2020 – that he as soon as had himself.
Today, Gasol is out to proceed what Bryant began.
“Obviously Kobe was an inspiration, his impact and his involvement with Gigi was something that was very close to my heart and I felt I kinda try to follow that path,” Gasol stated in a press convention on Friday.
Gasol, a two-time NBA champion and a six-time NBA All-Star, is hoping to see a future the place younger women, like his personal daughter, would discover a profession in basketball.
“Having my own daughter as well, I wanted her to have any opportunity as my son would have. So all those things, for the love of the game, it’s just a very exciting time for women’s basketball.”
Like Bryant, Gasol is hoping to see girls’s basketball develop additional as he handed the torch to a different legend in Sue Bird who has been named as the brand new ambassador for the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Germany.
“I’ve always enjoyed watching the women’s game. It’s something I feel strongly about so to see the growth of the game, seeing the differences over the years, and to understand how that happens is amazing,” he added.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
