After winning gold with Team USA women’s basketball at the Paris Olympics, Sabrina Ionescu celebrated with Kobe Bryant’s family.
On Sunday, the women’s basketball team closed the show at the Olympics, edging France, 67-66, to the top of the podium.
After the full-time whistle, the former Oregon star ran courtside where the late Bryant’s widow Vanessa and daughters Natalia, Capri, and Bianka were sat for the action.
Ionescu and the Bryants were beaming with smiles as they exchanged hugs after the shooting guard secured gold in her first Olympic campaign.
While Ionescu and her mentor’s family traded pleasantries, Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers teammate Pau Gasol and his family watched the monumental moment. Gasol’s wife, Catherine McDonnell, wore Ionescu’s New York Liberty jersey.
Sabrina Ionescu celebrated with Kobe Bryant’s family after winning gold at the Paris Olympics
Ionescu and Bryant met during her time with the Ducks. Aside from being a fan of the Mamba, Ionescu ended up working close to Bryant as their mentor-mentee relationship grew through her college years.
After the five-time NBA champion died in 2020, Ionescu maintained contact with Bryant’s family – as her professional and international careers took off.
In the same year that Kobe and daughter Gigi passed in a helicopter crash, Ionescu was drafted first overall by the Liberty.
Ionescu’s Olympic gold medal will be her fifth in national colors as she secured wins in the FIBA World Cup, U-17 World Cup, Americans U-16 Championship, and Pan American Games (3×3).
Ionescu contributed two rebounds and three assists in ten minutes of play on Sunday for the gold medal finish.
Ionescu is part of the Team USA squad that beat France 67-66 during Sunday’s final game
Ionescu hugs Natalia Bryant courtside after Sunday’s win over France
Bryant became Ionescu’s friend and mentor while she attended the University of Oregon
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