Chris Brown is using his artistic skills to pay tribute to late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, who died on Jan. 26 alongside 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other victims in a tragic helicopter crash outside of Los Angeles. The “No Guidance” singer shared a photo of a mural he was painting outside of his home of Bryant’s face on Instagram three days after the former Los Angeles Lakers player’s death, even using gold and purple paints in reference to the team’s colors.
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“WORK IN PROGRESS!!!” he captioned the mural. “WE LOVE YOU KING.”
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The day news broke that Bryant had passed, Brown also shared a photo of the two shaking hands courtside, writing in the caption, “DEVASTATED!! RIP KING.”
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In another note on social media, he noted, “Tell people u love them while they are here…YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS!”
Brown’s connection with Bryant could also stem from the way the late athlete is being remembered as a “girl dad.” Brown himself is the father of two daughters, welcoming Aeko with ex Ammika Harris in November and sharing 5-year-old daughter Royalty with ex Nia Guzman. In 2015, Brown told Ryan Seacrest that becoming the father of a daughter had changed his outlook on life completely.
“So I have a co-parenting job that’s pretty amazing but, you know, learning how to be a dad, especially learning how to take care of somebody else, you know, I barely know how to brush my teeth in the morning!” Brown said at the time. “It’s actually great. It’s very humbling. You know, it’s very calming. I think I was a lot, you know, rambunctious, very hyper as a kid but now seeing that 10 times over, my daughter’s kinda like mellowing me out.“
“I think with me, the main thing is probably patience,” he added. “With me, I always want stuff done right now—’Let’s get it done, let’s get it done!’ but, you know, being able to be a father and, you know, seeing my daughter, you know, from those gradual stages, from crawling to walking to saying words now, you know, learning different things every day is kinda just teaching me patience.”
Photo credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
