Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s memorial service

Alicia Keys played Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” during the service.

It was one of Kobe and Vanessa Bryant’s favorite pieces.

Moments ago, Kobe Bryant’s friend Rob Pelinka said the basketball legend once vowed to teach himself to play the piece to show his love for his wife.

Kobe Bryant was not a trained musician — but that wasn’t enough to stop him, Pelinka said.

“Kobe’s passion and love for Vanessa and the focus that only the Black Mamba has made this seemingly impossible goal a reality,” he said.

Rob Pelinka — the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant’s former manager and the godfather of Gianna Bryant — said he was texting with Kobe just minutes before the deadly helicopter crash.

Kobe had texted him asking if he knew a certain baseball agent in California. Kobe wanted to help a friend get his daughter a baseball agency internship, and he vouched for her work ethic, Pelinka said.

“He clearly wanted to champion a bright future for her,” he said.

Pelinka said he texted that he’d help however he could — and moments later, the helicopter Kobe and Gianna were on crashed.

The girl Kobe had been texting about was Lexi Altobelli, the surviving daughter of coach John Altobelli, who also died in the crash.

Geno Auriemma, a coach for the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team, recalled the moment Kobe Bryant asked him for advice on coaching his daughter, Gianna.

“The uncoachable one wants to talk about coaching. Probably the most uncoachable player in the NBA during his career wants to know about coaching, and I wanted to know why. He said, ‘I’m coaching my daughter’s team.’ I said, ‘Oh, my God. That poor kid,’” Auriemma said.

Auriemma said while Bryant was NBA royalty, he stepped back from the limelight to allow his daughter to shine. He went on to say the Bryant was being dad. 

“He wasn’t being Kobe Bryant. He was allowing Gigi to be Gigi, not Kobe Bryant’s daughter,” Auriemma said.

Sabrina Ionescu — a college basketball player for the Oregon Ducks who taught Gianna Bryant — said the 13-year-old basketball player was the future of the game.

Ionescu said she grew close to both Kobe and Gianna after he brought his daughter to a college game.

She added:

Vanessa Bryant closed out her emotional tribute with a message to her late husband: “Babe, you take care of our Gigi.”

Four-time Olympic medalist and Bryant family friend Diana Taurasi gave a speech remembering Gianna and Kobe.

“Watching Kobe play at the Great Western Forum as a rookie made this little girl believe she could be a Laker one day,” Taurasi said.

“He made it OK to play with an edge that borderlined crazy. Early on the Mamba mentality was in full effect. Years later when I spent time with Kobe at the Olympics, I learned firsthand it was not limited to the basketball court,” she added.

Taurasi promised to carry Gigi’s legacy, saying, “Gigi in many ways represents the future of women’s basketball, a future where a young woman aspires to play in the WNBA the same way I wanted to be a Laker.”

“She represents a time when a young girl doesn’t need permission to play. Her skill would command respect,” she said of Gigi’s legacy.

Vanessa Bryant recalled the time Kobe gifted her the blue dress worn by Rachel McAdams in “The Notebook.”

She described in detail her relationship with Kobe, saying he was “the romantic one.”

One of those gifts, she said, was dress from the “The Notebook.”

“And it was because it was the scene when Allie comes back to Noah,” Vanessa said. “We hoped to grow old together like the movie. We really had an amazing love story. We loved each other with our whole beings, and two imperfect people raising a beautiful family.”

She went on to describe how he loved watching tearjerker films like “Step Mom,” “Steel Magnolias,” and “Little Women.” 

“He had a tender heart,” Vanessa said.

Vanessa Bryant described her late husband as “the MVP of girl dads.”

Bryant went on to say he was “doting” father “that was hands on and present.”

She recalled how he helped her bathed their youngest daughter almost every night.

“He would make them laugh and smile as he got them ready for bed. He had magic arms and could put Capri to sleep in only a few minutes, and he had it down to a science, eight times up and down our hallway,” Vanessa said.

Kobe and Gianna Bryant at the 2016 NBA All-Star Game

Vanessa Bryant said her daughter Gianna advocated for equal pay for professional female athletes — even though she was just 13 years old.

Gianna Bryant, who was also known as Gigi, dreamed of playing in the Women’s National Basketball Association.

“She would have made a huge difference for women’s basketball. Gigi was motivated to change the way everyone viewed women in sports,” Vanessa Bryant said.

She added:

Several celebrities and NBA athletes are in attendance at the memorial service.

Here are few we’ve seen so far at the service: