On Sunday 26th January, tragedy struck as a helicopter carrying 9 people crashed in Calabases, California. The 9 victims included Basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, alongside others from the sporting fraternity including baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri and his daughter Alyssa, Sarah Chester and daughter Payton the pilot Ara Zobayan and basketball coach Christina Mauser.
Whilst the world mourns one of basketballs all time greats in Kobe Bryant, we wanted to pay tribute to Christina Mauser as a fellow female coach.
Christina Mauser was a Mom of three, married to husband Matt and was a basketball coach. She grew up in Huntington Beach, CA and attended Edison High School, where she played on the Chargers.
Christina was the assistant coach to Kobe Bryant, who coached his daughters basketball team at Mamba Sports Academy.
Kobe founded the academy in 2018 and named it after for his alter-ego, Black Mamba. Christina was also an assistant girls basketball coach at a private elementary school in Orange County, in addition to coaching at Harbor Day School in Corona del Mar.
In November 2018, Christina and Kobe coached a basketball clinic together for WNBA players at the academy.
Kobe personally selected Christina to be his assistant because she had “an amazing mind” for the game, asking her to teach defence to the players. Kobe didn’t really understand zone defence because he never played it in high school or college. They called her the MOD – Mother of Defence.
Christina’s husband expressed his families heartbreak:
“She was extraordinary, she was incredible witty, funny like nobody you’ve ever met, she could imitate anybody. She was warm, incredibly bright, technologically savvy.”
Our hearts go out to Christina’s family and to the families of all those who died.
