More than three years after Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi and seven others died in a tragic helicopter accident, Bryant’s legacy lives on through his Mamba Academy team. Sage Hill freshman Amalia Holguin is the last player Bryant coached at his academy to reach high school. LA Times contributor Luca Evans wrote about Holguin’s basketball journey and joined Kelvin Washington on “LA Times Today.”

After retiring from the NBA, Bryant became a mentor for young basketball players through his Mamba Academy. Holguin joined the academy at age 10 and trained with Bryant for a couple of years. 

“The most impressive thing about her is just her confidence from a young age that Kobe saw in her when she was 10. She was playing against 12- and 13-year-olds... Kobe saw that and took an interest in her and tried to cultivate and develop that confidence and swagger. And now she’s averaging 15 points a game and close to three steals for a really solid Sage Hill team and tasked with a lot of responsibilities as a freshman point guard. She really plays with a special sort of confidence that you really don’t see with too many guards in high school,” Evans explained.  

Upon joining the Mamba Academy, Holguin had to prove herself during “hell week” training.

“This was all part of Bryant’s plan and his desire to see, how far do these girls really want to take it? Do they really want to be division one level athletes? Do they really want to make it to the WNBA as they’ve said? For Amalia, this is one of her first introductions to the team, and she just broke down crying. And Kobe came over to her, consoled her, gave her a hug, picked her up and made her laugh. He canceled the rest of the weekend because he’d seen all he needed to see, which was that she could get herself to that point of being uncomfortable. And she wanted to be there. She just was too mentally exhausted to push herself any further,” Evans said. 

Evans talked about Holguin and Sage Hill’s prospects for their season. 

“Their consensus ranks top five in the CIF Southern Section, a tier below Sierra Canyon and Mater Dei, but they definitely have the talent to make a run. And especially in the future, a few more years with Amalia, especially next year, they can definitely be a force for years to come,” he said. 

Watch the full interview above. 

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