(Photo Credit: Scott Roth/Invision/AP)

Lizzo honors late NBA star

Grammy award-winning singer Lizzo paid tribute to NBA star Kobe Bryant, who was killed along with eight others in a helicopter crash last Sunday, at a pre-Super Bowl conference in Miami.

“I can’t be at the largest sporting event of the year without mentioning the tragic loss of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna,” Lizzo told the crowd. “We can’t be at this event and not think of them in our hearts and hold them up and honor them as sports fans, as music fans, as human beings…We have an effect on each other. We have to be good to each other. We don’t know what tomorrow holds. We don’t know if tomorrow’s promised. So, I want you all to just really dig down deep inside and be good to yourself, be good to your family. If you have any beef with your family, squash that (expletive).”

Bryant’s death sparked an outpouring of grief among basketball fans worldwide. Lizzo said she was “still trying to process” the loss of the NBA legend, whose 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, was also killed in the crash.

On a happier note, Lizzo recalled being invited to the Super Bowl as a high school student. She reflected on how amazing it was to perform at the same event sixteen years later.

“Our high school got selected to be in the crowd on the field during Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson,” Lizzo said. “Now here I am performing for the Super Bowl. I got a song with Justin Timberlake. And Janet Jackson likes my music. A lot can happen in a lifetime.”