"He wanted to know how I made that work": When Hailey Van Lith's dad opened up about Kobe Bryant reaching out to him to help train Gigi

It has now been five years since the death of LA Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gigi, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. Just days before his tragic passing, Kobe reached out to then-high school star Hailey Van Lith and her father, Corey Van Lith, to help Gigi grow as a future basketball star. He even went to Cashmere, Washington, to see Hailey play.

Kobe Bryant was a known supporter of women's basketball and had talked to Corey Van Lith about helping not only Gigi but also Hailey improve.

“He wanted to help Hailey," Corey Van Lith said, "but he also wanted to put someone in front of his daughter she could relate to, because Hailey is an incredibly hard worker. Hailey has devoted her life so far to becoming the best person and basketball player she can possibly be, and he wanted to show Gigi, ‘If you do this, you can attain the goals you want to attain.’

Corey also had a “dad-to-dad” talk with Kobe about his relationship with his daughter, Hailey Van Lith, who was a top high school prospect in 2014. In particular, he asked about the relationship between him as her trainer.

“He wanted to know how I made that work,” Corey said. “Because he was going down that road with his daughter Gigi.”

Just two weeks before the helicopter crash, Kobe traveled to Cashmere, Washington, to meet with Hailey Van Lith and the rest of the Cashmere team. He spoke with them after the game, accompanied by Gigi. The now-TCU star was devastated by their passing.

Corey used to train his daughter every night for three hours, usually before or after team workouts. This dynamic had Kobe Bryant intrigued, especially with Gigi being a rising basketball star at that time.

“He was one of the greatest basketball players of all time ... but he was always wanting to learn,” said Corey. “His ego wasn’t too big to ask somebody like me, who is nobody in the basketball world, ‘Hey, how did you find success in getting your daughter to where she’s at?’ ”

Hailey Van Lith talks about what Kobe Bryant told her before he died

In September 2013, Hailey Van Lith visited Kobe Bryant in California and practiced with Gigi Bryant's Mamba team. During this visit, she received valuable career advice from arguably the greatest Laker of all time.

“He told me to study the game. ‘Make yourself a well-rounded player and just master the game,’ ” she said. “He told me I had to be better than them in every aspect of the game, and each time I met them and bested them, I could check them off the list. “So I did that. I made a list of 20 girls, and so far I’m seven down. I still have 13 to go.”

She also admitted that she and Gigi text each other, often discussing their dreams of playing in the WNBA.