‘You Have All The Time You Want With Gigi’: Kobe Bryant’s Text Messages In Final Days Before Tragic Helicopter Crash Revealed By Big3 Coach Ice Cube

Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi and 7 others died when a helicopter crashed right into a hillside northwest of Los Angeles on January 26, 2020.

Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and current Ice Cube’s Big3 League coach Nancy Lieberman developed a friendship over time. Just two days before Bryant’s premature death, he sent Lieberman a series of text messages concerning the importance of uplifting women’s sports.

Bryant has at all times been a staunch supporter of ladies’s sports, and as his prolific NBA profession got here to an end and his daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant took up basketball, his support only looked as if it would grow.

Lieberman joined former NBA coach Mark Jackson’s podcast, “The Mark Jackson Show,” and recounted a text message exchange she had with Bryant on January 24, 2024.

Lieberman said she initially sent Bryant the text message after she had an argument together with her then-coworkers.

“Kobe, I work with some radicals,” Lieberman said.

“Radicals?” Bryant asked.

“Yes, gentlemen… and they are arguing about what you said to the media recently.”

“When do you want to talk about it?” the NBA legend replied.

Lieberman explained that she and Bryant engaged in an hours-long exchange just two nights before that fateful day.

She added that she spent several years trying to search out time for Lieberman to work with Gigi’s team.

“Kobe and I talked for two years and we trained with Gigi’s team for one day. And then life got busy and we were doing all this stuff…we’ve never done that before.” Lieberman said she spoke with Bryant by phone after midnight on Jan. 26, 2020.

“Saturday after midnight, Kobe calls me because it’s chop chop. I’m like, ‘Hey, Kobe, yeah, how are you?’ He’s like, ‘OK, details… You fly in, you take an Uber home, we’ll get something to eat, we’ll hop in a helicopter, you go to Mamba, you’ll have all the time you want with Gigi and her team.’ So we had a plan.”

Bryant actually hoped Lieberman would pass on her invaluable basketball knowledge to his daughter and her teammates, especially given her impressive resume.

She began playing within the WNBA in its inaugural season in 1997. She then coached the previous WNBA Detroit Shock and the NBA G League franchise, and in addition served as an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings.

Another NBA icon, Michael Jordan, also previously shared his recent text exchange with Bryant.

In August 2021, Jordan he told ESPN that he had saved the last messages he shared with Bryant. He also said Bryant was glad in what were speculated to be the ultimate weeks of his special life.

“He was just so happy,” Jordan said of Bryant’s emotional state within the weeks leading as much as the tragic accident. “He was doing so well.”

“This tequila is amazing,” Bryant wrote within the text, referring to Jordan’s Cincoro Tequila. The Lakers great received a bottle of tequila.

“Thank you, brother,” Jordan replied.

“Yes, sir. Is the family okay?” Bryant replied.

“Everything is fine. Yours?”

“All good.”

Jordan then asked Bryant about his latest coaching accomplishments working with Gigi.

“Merry Christmas,” Jordan wrote. “and hope to see you soon. Coach Kobe?!”

“Hey coach, I’m on the bench right now and we’re crushing this team. 45-8,” Bryant wrote.