- NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, died on Sunday in a helicopter crash.
- Gianna had dreams of playing professional basketball to carry on her dad's legacy.
- Bryant once told The New Yorker that he thought his daughter was born with his competitive nature, but science suggests his parenting had a great impact on her love for basketball.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant may have had a the reputation for being fierce competitor, but few may know his daughter, Gianna, did as well.
Both Kobe and Gianna died on January 26 in a helicopter crash on the way to a youth basketball tournament, where the younger Bryant was expected to compete.
Gianna, who went by "Gigi" at home, played basketball for her middle school team. She had dreams of playing for the University of Connecticut and later the Women's National Basketball Association. Kobe routinely posted pictures of the two practicing to social media, and video clips have shown similarities between Gianna and her dad's style of play.
While Kobe speculated his daughter had his competitive nature built in her DNA, research may suggest his parenting shaped her passion for basketball more than genetics.
In 2014, Bryant told The New Yorker's Ben McGrath that after she lost a game of Candyland, a seven-year-old Gianna would knock over the board after she didn't win. This "short fuse" competitiveness resembled his own mannerisms; Bryant was known to push players to play to an absurd 100 points during one-on-one games, or trash talk opponents to get in their head.
"I was, like, 'S---, the kid's like me. Damn it,'" Bryant said of Gigi in The New Yorker. He later contributed her "insanely competitive" to her nature rather than his own influence.
Yet research says Bryant's parenting had a larger influence on his daughter's mentality than he saw at the time.
A 2015 study found a parent's expectations greatly impacts their children's success in adulthood. Kids whose parents expected them to go to college performed better on standardized tests than other children, the study found. In Kobe, he fully accepted his daughter's dream to carry on his legacy.
"The best thing that happens is when we go out and fans would come up to me and she'll be standing next to me, and they'll be like, 'You've gotta have a boy. You and V gotta have a boy,'" Bryant told Jimmy Kimmel in late 2019. "'You gotta have somebody to carry on your tradition, the legacy.' She's like, 'Oy, I got this.' I'm like, 'That's right. Yes, you do, you got this.'"
Kobe referred to his daughter as "Mambacita," a play on the Black Mamba nickname he had given himself per the deadly African snake. He had said on video that Gianna was "hell bent" on playing for UConn. That's like what researchers call the "Pygmalion effect" after the Roman sculptor who fell in love with a statue he created. "What one person expects of another can come to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy," social psychologist Robert Rosenthal said.
Another study from 2013 specifically studied how parenting impacts a child's competitiveness, and it found an appropriate level of parental support can increase their kid's enjoyment and motivation of the game — meaning Bryant's support of his daughter's passion no doubt increased her desire to play professional basketball.
Bryant said at the end of the day, Gianna was his daughter before a basketball player. "It's important that she knows that that's how I feel," Bryant told CBS News. "And those aren't words...After a tough game, you get in the car and it's forgotten."
SEE ALSO: Kobe Bryant was known for his intense work ethic, here are 24 examples
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