LOS ANGELES — Vanessa Bryant, widow of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, plans to donate the proceeds from the $16 million judgment she won Wednesday in a case against Los Angeles County to a foundation she established in her husband’s and daughter’s memory, her attorney said Thursday.
The nonprofit Mamba and Mambacita Sports foundation offers sports education to underserved athletes. Previously known as the Mamba Sports Foundation, it was renamed in 2020 to honor the Bryants’ 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, a rising basketball star who died alongside her father in a 2020 helicopter crash that spurred the lawsuit against the county.
After an 11-day trial, a federal jury on Wednesday ordered Los Angeles County to pay a total of $31 million to Bryant and a man who lost his daughter and wife in the crash for the distress caused by photos sheriff’s deputies and firefighters took and shared of the crash victims’ bodies.