Were Kobe Bryant's daughter Gigi Bryant and TCU's star Hailey Van Lith friends? Exploring their relationship
TCU Horned Frogs star Hailey Van Lith had a special relationship with late NBA icon Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant, aka "Gigi." One would think that their connection is unexpected, but that is not true because Van Lith went way back with Gigi and Kobe.
Van Lith trained with the father-daughter duo as a high school prospect in 2019 and was friends with them. While at Cashmere High School, she received a text from Bryant after a Team USA game. Van Lith, a Louisville Cardinals commit at the time, was surprised that the former LA Lakers legend knew about her and had reached out to her.
“The text was from one of Kobe’s main guys — I called him ‘T,’ and he just basically said that Kobe knew about me, loved my game and really wanted to get me to L.A. to work with him and talk about basketball,” Hailey Van Lith said as per LA Times.
"I couldn’t believe it, that he actually knew who I was and thought I was a good player," she added. "When I later asked him, ‘Why me?’ he basically said the way I play, my work ethic and mentality on the court, reminded him of himself, and it compelled him to reach out to me."
Kobe also wanted to connect with Hailey Van Lith, as he wanted to set an example for his daughters. While talking about her relationship with Gigi in August 2019, Van Lith said the two formed a bond with each other and that she was mentoring her young friend.
"She was a nice, shy girl, polite and very reserved outside of the game of basketball, but on the court, she had that killer instinct," Van Lith said. "She was a competitor, fearless on the court. I played her one-on-one, and she was not scared of me.
"She didn’t care that I was supposed to be better than her, taller and older. She just played with everything she had, and that was something cool to see."
Hailey and Gigi also used to message each other about the games they played. The former LSU star also said that Kobe's daughter was excited to play basketball in high school and then join the University of Connecticut.
Kobe Bryant surprised Hailey Van Lith by attending one of her games
The five-time NBA champion had promised Hailey Van Lith that he would attend one of her games while she was in high school. Hailey did not take that seriously, but to her surprise, the late star attended one of her matchups in Washington along with Gigi and uploaded a series of pictures on Instagram.
“I was like, ‘OK, Kobe, whatever,’ but he ended up coming. And that just affirmed to me that he was super serious about advocating for girl’s basketball and giving Gigi every opportunity he could to be surrounded by the game she loved,” she said as per LA Times.
Fans clamored at the basketball court while giving him and his daughter the space to enjoy Hailey Van Lith's game.
Kobe Bryant also kept in touch with Hailey's father, Corey Van Lith, who trained his daughter and caught the eye of the NBA legend. Corey told the LA Times that Bryant had asked for some of the workouts he did with Hailey to show and inspire Gigi.