Vanessa Bryant Reminisces On Kobe Bryant’s 2016 ESPYS Speech & Gives Close Teammate a Birthday Shoutout

Vanessa Bryant celebrated the birthday of Kobe Bryant’s teammate Pau Gasol with a sweet and simple Instagram post. On July 6, 2025, Vanessa shared a snap of her and oldest daughter Natalia Diamante with the former Laker. In the caption, she called Gasol her “brother” and wished him a happy birhtday in Spanish. “Feliz cumpleaños, hermano!” wrote the mother of four.

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The photo contains a couple of reminders of the later Kobe Bryant and his second daughter, Gianna. Vanessa sports her glimmering diamond engagement ring, and wears a wristband that bears the logo #playgigisway. In October 2023, Vanessa explained that to “play Gigi’s way” means to play sports “with joy, curiosity, and competitiveness, while never taking any opportunity for granted just like Gianna Bryant.”

Gasol played with Kobe on the Los Angeles Lakers for total of seven seasons, from 2007 through the 2014 season. During that time, the duo shared two major victories when the Lakers were back-to-back NBA champions in 2009 and 2010.

Vanessa Bryant Previously Described Kobe Bryant & Pau Gasol’s Bond

“Pau was special to Kobe, as a man and as a friend,” Vanessa said in 2023 at Gasol’s jersey retirement ceremony. She went on, “Kobe predicted you and he would be together in the rafters.” A video then played of Kobe talking about his friend.

“There’s no debate. When he retires, he will have his number in the rafters next to mine,” Kobe says in the clip, which was taken during the 2018 Oscars. He continued, “Reality is, I don’t win those championships without Pao. The Lakers wouldn’t have those two champions without Pao. We know that, everybody knows that, and I really look forward to the day when he’s there giving his speech at center court in front of all the fans who have supported him over the years.” He finished by predicting Gasol’s retirement was “going to be an awesome day.”

Vanessa Bryant Relived Kobe Bryant’s 2016 ESPYS Speech

On July 17, 2025, Vanessa took to her Instagram Stories to repost clips from an inspiring speech the shooting guard made at the 2016 ESPY awards. Kobe won the Icon Award at that year’s ceremony, per NBA.com.

In the speech, Kobe says while Vanessa emotionally looks on from the audience, “We’re all up here because we had a dream. If anything tried to bring us down, we used it to make us stronger. We were never satisfied, never finished.”

The basketball megastar then shouted out his high school English teacher, Mr. Fisk. “He had this beautiful quote, and it’s ‘Rest at the end, not at the middle.’ And I took that to heart,” said Kobe.

Vanessa pulled the clip from a fan account which is dedicated to keeping the memory of Kobe Bryant alive on Instagram called @kobehighlight_, which thanked her for the repost.