Her post on Instagram also expressed sorrow for the families of the seven other people who perished in the crash Sunday morning in Calabasas, Calif. She announced that a fund has been set up through the Mamba Sports Foundation to assist the families of those victims.

GREER: Your version of Kobe doesn’t need to match anyone else’s

A post shared by Vanessa Bryant 🦋 (@vanessabryant) on Jan 29, 2020 at 4:59pm PST

Vanessa Bryant also wrote in the post that Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna were “our beautiful blessings taken away from us too soon.”

“I’m not sure what our lives hold beyond today, and it’s impossible to imagine life without them. But we wake up each day, trying to keep pushing because Kobe, and our baby girl, Gigi, both knew that they were so deeply loved,” she wrote.

Kobe and Gianna Bryant were killed when the helicopter in which they were riding crashed into a remote hillside in Calabasas. They were en route to a basketball game that 13-year-old Gianna was scheduled to play. Six other passengers and the pilot were on board the aircraft when it went down in foggy conditions.

GREER: Gianna brought out the best side of her father

As Vanessa Bryant was making her first statement, NBA teams continued to honor Kobe and Gianna Bryant on Wednesday. The Nets, for their game against the Pistons, produced a video tribute to Kobe Bryant and held open two courtside seats in a nod to the viral moment of father talking with daughter a Nets game in December.

Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, meanwhile, switched his jersey number from 8 to 26, making him the latest player to “retire” one of Kobe’s numbers.

Pacers guard Victor Oladipo, in his first game back since suffering a knee injury last season, dedicated his game-tying 3-pointer Wednesday to the crash victims.

“Mamba mentality . . . Mamba mentailty, Mamba mentality, man,” Oladipo, fighting back tears, said in a postgame interview after the Pacers defeated the Bulls in overtime. “That was (for) Ko, GiGi, all (those) people that (were) on that helicopter, that’s for them, man.”

The Sacramento Kings put Bryant’s name and number in neon outside Golden 1 Center and produced their own video tribute.

The Lakers’ NHL neighbors, the LA Kings, offered their own tributes in the first sporting event at Staples Center since the crash, including a pregame ceremony, and a commemorative graphic: