(CNN) News that NBA superstar Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in California on Sunday was made more tragic by what came next -- confirmation that his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, also was on board.

The father-daughter duo were expected at the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks for a basketball game. Gianna was going to play, the team director told CNN . And Bryant was going to coach.

Gianna Bryant and her father, former NBA player Kobe Bryant, attend the WNBA All-Star Game 2019 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

That wasn't out of the norm. Gianna -- the second of Bryant's four daughters with his wife, Vanessa Laine Bryant -- was a passionate basketball player. And Bryant made sure he was involved in her development by coaching her team. He sometimes shared photos of her at games on Instagram, or videos of the two of them playing together.

Kobe Bryant holds his daughter, Gianna, after the Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic in Game 5 of the 2009 NBA Finals on June 14, 2009, at Amway Arena in Orlando.

In fact, Bryant saw Gianna, who wanted to play in the WNBA, as the heir to his legacy -- something he confirmed in an appearance on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live! " in 2018.

"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," Bryant said, "and they'll be like, 'You've gotta have a boy, you and V gotta have a boy. You gotta have somebody to carry on your tradition, the legacy."

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