Jan. 26, 2020. That’s the day the world lost Koby Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash. His family was devastated. However, his wealth became a point of discussion. While his wife, Vanessa Bryant, inherited his wealth, Bryant’s parents struggled. And Nick Young recently disclosed the same.
In a recent interview session with DJ Vlad, Young sat with the team to share his memories of Kobe Bryant. He also shared his insights into the controversy surrounding Bryant’s parents having to sell his things. “They need the money, I think… I was about to say that they didn’t really have that much compared to Vanessa. If you ain’t got the funds, you got to do what you got to do,” he said.
However, his reluctance to talk about the topic was visible. They also spoke about how Bryant had cut off his parents financially because of their rocky relationship. In 2013, his parents, Pamela and Joe, tried to sell his sports memorabilia to an auction house. And the basketball player had no idea about it. This resulted in him filing a lawsuit against them and his parents publicly apologized to him.
“We regret our actions and statements related to the Kobe Bryant auction memorabilia… We apologize for any misunderstanding and unintended pain we have caused our son and appreciate the financial support he has provided over the years,” they stated. But this happened a while ago. So why are DJ Vlad and Young discussing it now?
Turns out Kobe Bryant’s 2000 NBA championship ring he gifted to his father was up for auction recently. As reported by ‘Los Angeles Times’, Bryant’s father had already sold it 11 years ago. Now the current owner is reselling the same ring.
The current owner’s identity is not known. But they put it up for sale on March 9, 2024. In fact, the owner used Goldin, the same auction place that Joe and Pamela used to sell the ring more than a decade ago.
But this wasn’t the only thing that caused the rift between the star and his parents. Pamela and Joe were not happy with him being in a relationship with someone of a different race. In fact, they also chose to not attend Kobe and Vanessa’s wedding.
It is said that the NBA star tried mending his relationship with his parents several times, but the disagreements wouldn’t stop. In fact, after he retired, he started seeing his parents more. Kobe Bryant’s 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren were also spending with their grandfather. Though all of this was tricky, they tried to work through it.
Over the years, Bryant’s relationship with his parents became a point of discussion. In fact, after his saddening death, many spoke about Bryant’s parents and his wife. Gilbert Arena was one of them. “It’s her [Vanessa] job to call them to take that off their hands because they’re obviously just trying to survive. And [Vanessa] is just sitting over there with the grandkids, billion-dollar industry,” Arena said in an exclusive interview with Basketball Network. However, Vanessa has had battles of her own.
The turmoil in Kobe Bryant’s legacy…
In 2013, when Joe and Pamela Bryant attempted to sell Bryant’s belongings, it included his 2000 Lakers championship rings, a signed basketball from the 2000 Lakers team, a surfboard, and a 1996 Lower Merion High School Championship ring. But Kobe Bryant was there to retaliate.
However, after his death, Vanessa has had legal issues with her own mother. Her mother Sophia Laine filed a lawsuit against the 42-year-old, claiming $96 per hour for being a nanny for the couple’s daughters. Lained claimed that she had an oral contract with her daughter and son-in-law. But the lawsuit was settled in 2021.
“[She’s] continuing to try and find ways to extort a financial windfall from our family… Her claims are obviously false, but I still tried, repeatedly, to work things out with my mother,” she told US Magazine after things were settled. “I have supported her for nearly 20 years, and she was never my or Kobe’s personal assistant, nor was she a nanny. I have always been a stay-at-home mother and my husband and I were our daughter’s full-time caregivers.”
Today, Vanessa Bryant is worth $600 million. What are your thoughts about the legal and family issues Kobe Bryant faced? Let us know in the comments below.