“[Kobe Bryant] Was Going to Take My Sister to the Prom”: NBA Veteran Reveals Lakers Legend’s Failed Date

Kobe Bryant was a man of passion, whether it be his game or his family. So why would a person like him fail to keep his word about anything, even if it was just a prom date? The ex-Sacramento Kings‘ star, Mike Bibby, has a good enough explanation for that. The 1997 NCAA champion was recently in an episode of the podcast Forgotten Seasons. He recollected the memories of his bond and connections with Bryant during the episode.

“Funny story, he was gonna take my sister to the prom. To his prom. And I don’t even know how. My sister is three years younger, so she must have been like 14 years old,” recalled Bibby. He further mentioned that this age difference could have been the reason for the failed date. This discussion emerged after podcast host Dylan Dreyfuss, sparked a conversation on how Kobe Bryant and Mike Bibby’s relationship went back till their fathers.

Notably, both the players’ fathers, Joe Bryant and Henry Bibby, played for the Philadelphia 76ers for four seasons, of which they had three seasons in common. However, Mike remembers nothing from that period. In fact, the ex-NBA star stated to have become closer to the Black Mamba only after the 1996 McDonalds game. However, he admitted that both their fathers playing on the same team and then both of them being top five of the high school class helped with the bond. It was after this that Bibby recollected the time his sister almost accompanied Kobe to his prom.

“I guess he figured, ‘That ain’t gonna work. I’m going to go with Moesha’,” Mike Bibby explained on the show. Notably, Moesha was a fictional character on a 1996 show ‘Moesha’, played by Brandy Norwood back then. But how did she end up as Kobe Bryant’s prom date?

Revisiting the time Kobe Bryant took Brandy Norwood to prom

The 5x NBA champion was 17 when met the then Moesha-sitcom star Brandy Norwood. The duo is said to have met for the first time at the 1996 Essence Awards. “He came home from the Essence Awards and said, ‘I met such a nice, beautiful, intelligent, sweet person,'” Kobe’s mother had recalled in an interview to Philadelphia Daily News.

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However, the Black Mamba, being a shy one, could not ask out Brandy to the prom himself. As per the reports, he got someone else to get in touch with Brandy and see if she would want to go with him. “He asked me to go to the prom with him. And since he was a nice guy … I asked my mom, and she said yes,” Norwood once told the New York Daily News.

The Moesha-sitcom star had reached out to Kobe Bryant’s family to express her grief at their time of loss. “My condolences to @vanessabryant, and all families who are in pain during this tragic time. Love. #Mamba #Mambacita,” she had posted on Kobe’s tragic demise.

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