Beyonce has paid tribute to the late basketball great Kobe Bryant.
Queen Bey, a regular guest at Los Angeles Lakers games, the franchise Kobe spent his entire pro career with, shared a series of images on social media remembering the future Hall of Famer.
In one post on Instagram, Bey captioned a now-famous image of Bryant on the sidelines at a Lakers game, kissing his daughter Gianna on the head. The pair both perished last weekend in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, along with seven others.
“I will continue to diligently pray for your Queens,” she writes. “You are deeply missed beloved Kobe.”
Beyonce also posted cute, separate photos of a young Kobe and Gianna, without comment.
Bryant, 41, was a five-time NBA champion, 2008 MVP and a ruthless scoring machine, who many sports fans consider to be among the greatest to play the game. Gianna was just 13.
Beyonce and Bryant had a decades-long friendship. Earlier this week, a fan Twitter account unearthed a throwback snap of the athletic guard and Beyonce’s R&B group Destiny's Child, taken sometime in the early 2000s. Kobe even appeared in the music video for "Bug A Boo,” from 1999.
On Wednesday, the NBA star’s wife Vanessa broke her silence on social media. "There aren’t enough words to describe our pain right now," she wrote. "I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved. We were so incredibly blessed to have them in our lives. I wish they were here with us forever. They were our beautiful blessings taken from us too soon."