Lakers President Jeanie Buss Says 'You Just Don't Get Over' Death of Kobe Bryant

Los Angeles Lakers President Jeanie Buss still gets emotional about the sudden death of Kobe Bryant.

Kobe and one of his four daughters, 13-year-old Gianna, died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020. A year and a half later, Buss said in an interview with The New York Times that it's a difficult loss to move on from as a team executive who once counted herself as a "big sister, for sure" to the athlete early in his career.

Recalling a lunch she once had with Kobe and Gianna, as well as the Basketball Hall of Fame ceremony earlier this year when he was inducted posthumously, Buss told the Times, "It's almost like having to put him away again. He's going into the Hall, and it's like we're leaving him there. It's hard. It's hard to go through this again."

"I guess you just don't get over it," added Buss, 59.

The Buss family and Kobe have been connected since Jerry Buss approved a trade for the future Lakers star on the same day he was selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1996 NBA Draft. Kobe remained on the Lakers throughout his entire 20-year NBA career, which came to a close in 2016.

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In May 2020, Buss was a guest on sports announcer Joe Buck and actor Oliver Hudson's Daddy Issues podcast, where she discussed Kobe and the loss of her own father, former Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who died of kidney failure in 2013.

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"There have been moments in the last seven years that I've had these very visceral dreams where either I'm going through some stress or I feel I'm not confident in a decision or whatever and there'll be an appearance [of my father]," Buss said at the time, per the Los Angeles Times. "Or sometimes out of nowhere I'll run into a person or see somebody and they'll come up, share a story about my dad that I've never heard. Or they'll send me a picture or something."

"It's like a trigger that then the good feelings come back," she explained. "This is what it was like when he was around. How important that is for me."

She added, "I've had a couple dreams about Kobe too. It's like, those make me feel like he's okay. Like it's going to be okay. ... I would give anything to go back and have January 26 never take place."