Kobe Bryant Once Gifted Vanessa Bryant the Dress and Shoes From ‘The Notebook’

During the memorial service for her husband and 13-year-old daughter Gigi, Vanessa Bryant shared that Kobe loved celebrating Valentine’s day and was very thoughtful and romantic.  In 2013 Vanessa Bryant took to Instagram to reveal the LA Laker had gifted her the blue dress and shoes that Rachel McAdams wore in The Notebook for Valentine’s Day.

“He gave me the actual notebook and the blue dress that Rachel McAdams wore in ‘The Notebook’ movie,” she said. 

“When I asked him why he chose the blue dress, he said it was because it’s the scene when Allie comes back to Noah.”

“We had hoped to grow old together like in the movie,” she continued. “We really had an amazing love story. We loved each other with our whole beings. Two perfectly imperfect people making a beautiful family and raising our sweet and amazing girls.”

Echoing Vanessa’s sentiments about how romantic the LA Laker was, longtime friend Rob Pelinka shared a story about how Bryant learned to play Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” by ear. 

Vanessa brought out Kobe’s romantic side like nobody else in the world could,” Pelinka said. “While he was away, he wanted to live in his love for Vanessa so at night under the moonlit sky, he vowed to teach himself by ear to play the first movement of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata.’ When he told me this, I thought, ‘There’s no way!’ That next morning, Kobe called and played me the first few measures. The next morning, more. By the end of the week, he had the entire piece mastered, and he played it for me over the phone without a mistake.”