“No, I was going to work out with them this summer, and I knew they really liked UConn, so I was hoping to build a relationship with them.” That was Paige Bueckers, looking back on the what-ifs. Before the crash. Before the silence. She never got to meet Kobe Bryant or Gianna before their unfortunate passing. But even now, five years later, that imagined connection still lingers like a thread left untied.

Over the years, we have heard countless women’s basketball stars name Kobe as a champion of the game, a real one who gave them his time, attention, and belief. But for Bueckers, the connection is something more — not forged in a gym, but in spirit.

After leading UConn to the first national title since 2016 with a dominant 82-59 win over South Carolina, Bueckers sat at the podium, eyes thoughtful, voice steady. She talked not just about the win but about something else — something bigger.

“There have been times this whole weekend and throughout the whole tournament that I feel like God has really shown himself and my mom staying in room 824, which are both of Kobe’s numbers and stuff like that,” she said in the post game conference. Room 824. A simple hotel keycard turned sign. Turned meaning. That wasn’t all, though. She called the year as “blessed” one.

“I mean, win or lose, it’s been a very blessed year, but I feel like God’s presence has really been showing out. And in little things you just see his presence, so palpable, and so I feel like a lot of that too.” There was a pause. A weight.

Paige Bueckers also expressed that she lost her friend Abby. Not only that, but former teammate Amaya Battle’s mother, who was a family friend, also passed away. But the senior guard felt their presence along with that of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi. “Kobe’s watching over us, Gigi’s watching over us, Abby, Stephanie Battle, and everybody. I felt their presence for sure.”

Kobe Bryant previously proudly explained how his daughter was “hellbent on UConn.” At just 13, her passion mirrored that of her father—the kind he reserved for Lakers titles. The Huskies knew what it meant for Gigi to don the threads proudly. Shortly after her passing, they honored her with a No. 2 Huskies jersey laid gently on the bench. Alongside it sat white roses and a note that read, “Mambacita is forever a Husky.”

And for Bueckers? This wasn’t superstition. No. It was faith. Not just in God, but in legacy. In meaning. In unseen hands, shaping seen outcomes.

When her body betrayed her, Paige Bueckers looked to Kobe for the blueprint

The championship run was storybook. But Paige’s path to that stage was anything but.

She was once the golden girl, a high school phenom from Hopkins with the world watching. And then it happened — not once, but twice. A tibial plateau fracture her sophomore year. A torn ACL in her junior year. Seasons lost. Questions raised. Critics circled.

“When this injury first happened, I thought a lot about Kobe,” Paige Bueckers said with ESPN. “I read “The Mamba Mentality” book and how he just looked at his injury as another way to prove people wrong and as another thing to accomplish.”

Those words hit different when you’re lying on a trainer’s table instead of lighting up March Madness. But that’s what Mamba Mentality was—grit as gospel! Bueckers didn’t just read Kobe. She absorbed him. Let him live in her process. Let Gigi’s dream—that stubborn, UConn-obsessed dream—live in her legs.

And now, standing as a national champion and the 3rd all-time leading scorer in the NCAA tournament, it all feels connected. Clinching that title that was nearly a decade in making, it felt like that empty seat had someone sitting in it, after all.

Even Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, felt it. She shared the UConn win on her social media with a Gigi message. ’When you think you can’t, UCONN’ ~ Gianna Bryant 💔❤️.” She added, “Gigi would’ve loved being there with you. Congratulations 🎉 @genoauriemma @uconnwbb.” 

So maybe Paige never got to train with Kobe. Maybe Gigi never wore the jersey for real.

But this season? This run? This title? It felt like theirs, too! And if you ask Bueckers, she’ll tell you. God showed up. Kobe showed up. Gigi showed up. And maybe, just maybe …

Room 824 wasn’t just a coincidence. It was a calling.