The WNBA on Friday honored the late Gianna Bryant, Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester by making them honorary selections prior to the first round of the 2020 WNBA Draft.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the selections in alphabetical order in a televised tribute to the girls, who were killed in a helicopter crash Jan. 26 in California. The three were AAU teammates. Engelbert also honored the late Kobe Bryant, Gianna's father, who perished in the crash as well, along with Altobelli's parents and Chester's mother.
The WNBA honors Alyssa Altobelli, Gianna Bryant and Payton Chester and makes them honorary draft picks at WNBA draft pic.twitter.com/wqsntNNzDe
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 17, 2020
Vanessa Bryant, Gianna's mother and Kobe's widow, thanked the league in a video message after the selections were made.
Vanessa Bryant announces Gigi as one of this year's WNBA honorary draft picks. Her teammates were also honored by the league tonight. pic.twitter.com/psFow7PRtk
— Lakers Outsiders (@LakersOutsiders) April 17, 2020
At the end of Friday's draft, Engelbert announced that the league will introduce the Kobe and GiGi Bryant WNBA Advocacy Award, to recognize "an individual or group who has made significant contributions to the visibility, perception and advancement of women's and girls basketball at all levels." The inaugural recipient will be announced at next year's NBA All-Star in Indianapolis, the WNBA said. Vanessa Bryant will present the award.
Gianna Bryant, who would have turned 14 in May, was a huge Connecticut women's basketball fan and had her sights on following in her father's footsteps and becoming a professional basketball player.
MORE: Live WNBA Draft tracker
Sabrina Ionescu, the Oregon superstar who became the first Division I player — men's or women's — to record 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in a career, had developed a close friendship with Kobe over the last year and was a big supporter of Gianna Bryant.
"Gigi had so much of her dad’s skill set. You could tell the amount of hours they spent in the gym, practicing her moves," Ionescu said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "She smiled all the time, but when it was game time, she was ready to kill. Her demeanor changed almost instantly when the whistle blew.
"If I represented the present of the women's game, Gigi was the future, and Kobe knew it."
MORE: Sabrina Ionescu and Kobe Bryant: A timeline of friendship
Ionescu spoke at Kobe and Gianna Bryant's celebration of life at Staples Center on Feb. 24.
"The week after the accident, I was in Colorado, I had a game, and like I do before every game, I prayed. This time I was thinking about Kobe and Gigi," Ionescu said. "His voice is still in my head, even if his body is not on this Earth. And all I wanted was a sign that in some way he still heard me, too. I looked off into the sky and there it was, a beautiful golden sunset. The boldest yellow. Lakers yellow. And further in the distance, a helicopter. There was my sign, that he will forever be with me.
"I heard his voice in my head, the last line from one of his books: ‘Walk until the darkness is a memory, and you become the sun on the next traveler’s horizon.’"
Ionescu became the first overall pick of the 2020 NBA Draft when the New York Liberty selected her.