Lakers owner Jeanie Buss admits that she's still not over Kobe Bryant's death

The death of Kobe Bryant was not only difficult for Los Angeles Lakers fans but the entire sports community. However, only few could have experienced as much pain as Lakers owner Jeanie Buss. 

Buss formed a bond with Bryant during his rookie season in 1996. She took him out to lunch and even bonded with him over their mutual affinity with Italy, where Bryant spent part of his life. By his final year in Los Angeles, Bryant trusted only Buss to facilitate his goodbye tour from the NBA. 

In a recent interview with Jon Gold of The New York Times, Buss made a heartbreaking admission that she still hasn't gotten over the death of Bryant and probably never will. 

"It's almost like having to put him away again," Buss said, her voice cracking. "He's going into the Hall, and it's like we're leaving him there. It's hard. It's hard to go through this again.

"I guess," she added, "you just don't get over it."

Buss also detailed how Bryant set up a lunch between the two of them and his daughter Gianna, who also died in the tragic helicopter accident. 

"Once, he asked her out to lunch and brought Gianna," Gold writes. "He said he wanted his daughter to learn from a powerful female sports executive; Buss now believes that was only a ruse, that Bryant just wanted Buss to know how important she was, to him and to the team."

Hearing stories about Bryant never gets any easier, but with people like Buss sharing their memories of the Lakers legend, his life and legacy will live on forever.