Kobe Bryant's former players remember his words during their first year of college basketball

EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — On the fifth anniversary of that day — when the helicopter crashed, and she lost Coach Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and so much more — Kat Righeimer became a scholarship player at Northwestern.

The former walk-on, who played for Kobe Bryant with the Mamba Academy, soaked in the moment with her jubilant teammates. The timing, she said, felt like a sign.

“I look at it as like a gift from heaven, kind of from them,” Righeimer said. “Just like them telling me keep going, keep pushing.”

Keep working. Just like Kobe would have wanted.

Righeimer, 18, is one of six women from the Mamba Academy going through their first experience with college basketball. A proud group that learned so much from Bryant — always Coach Bryant to them — forever connected by a club team and a tragedy that shook their world.

They are spread throughout the country — and right beside each other through text messages of love and support. Emily Eadie is at Princeton, and Annika Jiwani plays for Dartmouth. Annabelle Spotts just finished her first season at the University of Chicago. Mackenly Randolph is at Louisville, and Zoie Lamkin plays for Orange Coast College back home in Southern California.

What lessons they learned from Kobe

As they moved through their first season of college ball, their conversations with Kobe were a frequent companion.

For Lamkin, it was all about repetition. Finish your breakfast, that’s what Eadie remembers. For Jiwani, it was the value of mistakes. Righeimer and Spotts focused on the mirror, and improving every day.

“At the end of the day, look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, did I get better today?” said Spotts, who is interested in working in sports after graduation, possibly on the business side. “And if not, fix that tomorrow. ... That’s one thing that always sticks with me.”

Bryant wanted Eadie to clean up her opportunities inside. When the 6-foot forward misses a layup or an easy shot with the Tigers, she often returns to what he used to say.

“In terms of finishing layups, because that was just something easy,” she said, “he was just like always just you can’t leave them on the table. You can’t leave your eggs and bacon on the table. ... Always got to finish your breakfast.”

When Lamkin first joined the Mamba team, she wasn’t very good with her left hand. So Bryant suggested brushing her teeth and turning on the TV with her left hand.

“He was like, ‘If you’re struggling with something ... just continue to practice on it,’” said Lamkin, a 5-foot-7 guard who is averaging 13.3 points this season.

Jiwani had the reverse experience. The 6-foot forward was a lefty growing up, so Bryant would tape her left hand behind her back and have her do everything with her right hand. Jiwani remembers Bryant staying after practice to work with her.

She also remembers the value he placed on mistakes as growth opportunities.

“That’s just ... that doesn’t even apply to basketball. I think that applies to life for me,” said Jiwani, who hopes to become a doctor someday.

As college players they have even more appreciation for Kobe

All the players fondly remember the two sides of Gigi — a fierce competitor on the court, and a lighthearted friend off it.

“She was very bubbly, I can hear her laugh in my head,” Righeimer said. “She was always smiling, always cracking jokes. But on the court, it’s like a light switch. She becomes like a beast.”

Eadie called Gigi "just the hardest worker.”

A lot like her father.

The players described Kobe Bryant as extremely detailed, focusing on the small things. He rarely raised his voice. He “just wanted to see us figure it out on our own,” Lamkin said.

Righeimer said she doesn’t think they touched a basketball at her first practice with Bryant. They just played defense and ran the whole time.

“He taught me to play my game, remember what I do best,” Mackenly Randolph said.

The icon part of Bryant’s life — all the basketball accolades and worldwide notoriety — that rarely surfaced with the players. For them, he was just coach.

“It never felt like he was this huge celebrity. But when we would go to these tournaments and all these people would come up and crowd our court, that’s when it felt real,” Eadie said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is a big thing.’”

It's only now, when they look back as college players, that they have a better understanding of what they experienced.

“Throughout the whole time that I knew him he was such a global figure, such an influence on the whole game of basketball and everyone who played it,” Spotts said. “I feel like I couldn’t fully appreciate and understand it at such a young age. Where now I could have. It was just kind of a surreal thing the whole time.”

What they remember about being told of the crash

On Jan. 26, 2020, a helicopter carrying Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna — along with six other passengers and a pilot — crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, northwest of Los Angeles. They were traveling to a tournament at Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy.

Alyssa Altobelli, 14, and Payton Chester, 13 — two more Mamba teammates — were among the victims. Assistant coach Christina Mauser, Altobelli’s parents, Keri and John, and Payton’s mother, Sarah, also were on the flight.

At the academy that day, as the players waited for the rest of the team to arrive, there was a growing unease.

Spotts’ father, Jon, got everyone together in a meeting room. The helicopter had crashed, he said. There may have been some fatalities, he continued — a word that stayed with the players long after that moment, an almost incomprehensible possibility when connected to their friends.

Fatalities.

“I was only, I think 13 at the time,” said Lamkin, who is interested in becoming a nurse after college. “I didn’t realize that meant like people might have, you know, passed away. And so I asked my mom, what does that mean? And she told me, and I just remember everybody just like breaking down, crying.”

Fatalities.

“I grew up going to Catholic school,” Righeimer said. “I went to church twice a week, and I prayed a lot, but I don’t remember ever praying as hard as I did that moment. And I remember telling my dad, ‘What does this mean? What are we going to do?’”

The Mamba Academy team was a group of All-Stars in a local league before it turned into the club team. There were players added along the way, often involving a somewhat dazing encounter with Bryant.

The Mamba parents became friends, too. After the helicopter went down, they had to face their own profound grief alongside their children.

"I think it was bigger than it being Kobe Bryant for our team and for my family," Annika Jiwani said.

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Feinberg reported from New Jersey.

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