Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka recalls the day he lost both his best friend Kobe Bryant and granddaughter Gianna in an emotional testimony Wednesday. I broke down in tears. Bryant when his helicopter crashin 2020.
Pelinka, who was also Kobe Bryant's former agent, said his NBA legend, 41-1, was involved in a helicopter crash. I was.
"My first instinct...I told my wife I had to go to Vanessa," Pelinka said in court, referring to Kobe Bryant's wife. "I wanted to be with her. I wanted to hug her, tell her I loved her, do whatever I could," Pelinka said through tears.
When he met Vanessa Bryant, Pelinka said she was inconsolable.
"Take her to her baby!" he remembered her saying.
Pelinka took a stand Wednesday on the first day of Vanessa Bryant's federal invasion of privacy lawsuit against Los Angeles County. Her NBA Hall of Famer's 13-year-old daughter's mangled body at the crash site in Calabasas.
Pelinka named Vanessa Bryant and Gianna's older sister Natalia Bryant as she Half of what he said was an hour's drive to the Russ Virgines Sheriff's Office near the crash site in Calabasas.
When she got there, she was shown to a room where the pastor delivered the devastating news.
Multiple deputies entered the room and told him and Vanessa Bryant that Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva was aware of Vanessa's request to protect the crash site area, Pelinka said. rice field.
Her GM of the Lakers said she was told, "There is no question that Sheriff Villanueva wants to honor her Vanessa request."
"As you can imagine, she (Vanessa) was not in a position to speak," Pelinka said.
When asked by Vanessa Bryant's attorney, Louis Lee, what the widow did to heal, Pelinka held her breath for a few seconds before bursting into tears.
One day in June 2020, Vanessa Bryant called me and asked if I could accompany her to the crash site.
"She said this was part of a journey of grief and healing," said Pelinka, wiping the tears from her face. "She wanted to touch where they've been and where they've gone to heaven." I said that I drove to the place where I climbed.
"We just talked and prayed...the flowers were blooming," he said. "We knew they were with us."
Pelinka said Vanessa Bryant had three surviving daughters after photos taken at the scene were released to the public. She added that she continues to struggle with grief and anxiety about the possibilities that may be seen in
"She was distressed and scared and angry," Pelinka said of Vanessa Bryant. "It is the very people who have done this that protect us. How can this be done?"
Pelinka will continue her testimony tomorrow.
