Kim and Khloe Kardashian join Kanye West and Kris Jenner as they mourn family friend Kobe Bryant

The Kardashian family were among the mourners celebrating the life of Kobe Bryant at his public memorial on Monday.

Sitting in the star-studded crowd at the Staples Centre, Kim and Khloe Kardashian joined Kanye West and Kris Jenner.

All were personal friends of the Bryant family, and appeared visibly moved as they watched Kobe’s widow Vanessa speak about her double loss.

Following the devastating crash which claimed the life of Kobe and his daughter Gianna, along with seven others in a helicopter crash on January 26, the Kardashians paid tribute to the NBA star.

Kim expressed her sadness as she sent her love to Kobe’s wife Vanessa and their three other daughters, 17-year-old Natalia, three-year-old Bianka, and seven-month-old Capri. 

She tweeted: ‘My heart is so heavy. No one should ever experience what the families involved are going through. 

‘This has affected us all so much but I cannot begin to imagine what Vanessa is feeling losing her husband and her baby girl. I cry just thinking about it.’ 

The night of the crash, Kanye West held a post-Grammys midnight Sunday Service, paying tribute to Bryant. 

Kanye’s service saw him freestyle to the crowd in a rap dedicated to Kobe, in which he said he ‘broke down’ after hearing the tragic news.

He rapped: ‘I was driving home / They was leaving your jersey on the freeway. And I just broke down, broke down, broke down.’ 

The 42-year-old and his Sunday Service Choir also launched into his 2015 single All Day, which originally featured Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom and Paul McCartney.

He told the audience: ‘I asked [Kobe] what he thought about this song, and his only response was ‘theme music.”

Monday’s service took place at the downtown arena where Bryant played for the Los Angeles Lakers for 17 seasons of his two-decade NBA career.

The ceremony began with Beyonce performing her songs XO and Halo with dozens dozens of backup musicians.

After Jimmy Kimmel welcomed the crowd, Vanessa Bryant remembered the family’s life with Gianna and her three siblings and then eulogized her husband. They had been together since 1999.

Speaking at time through tears, Vanessa Bryant praised her husband’s devotion as she addressed thousands of fans gathered at Staples Center to remember Bryant and 13-year-old Gianna.

‘God knew they couldn’t be on this Earth without each other,’ Vanessa Bryant said. ‘He had to bring them home to have them together. Babe, you take care of our Gigi.’

The crowd included Lakers greats such as Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Pau Gasol. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver joined Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, and dozens of current NBA players, including Stephen Curry, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook.  

Vanessa Bryant was followed on the podium by basketball stars Diana Taurasi and Sabrina Ionescu. Kobe Bryant was a passionate advocate for women´s basketball, and Gigi Bryant was a promising young player.

‘If I represented the present of the women´s game, Gigi represented the future, and Kobe knew it,’ said Ionescu, the Oregon star who was mentored by Bryant.

University of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma was followed by Rob Pelinka, Bryant´s longtime agent before he became the Lakers´ general manager in 2017. Pelinka was Gigi Bryant´s godfather, and their families were close.

Pelinka referred to the day of the crash as ‘when the axis of the world seemed to shift forever, for all of us.’

He also revealed that Bryant had texted him only moments before the crash, asking for help in securing an internship with a baseball agent for teenager Alexis Altobelli, who lost her parents and younger sister in the crash moments later.

‘Kobe lived to make other people´s lives better, all the way up to his final text,’ Pelinka said.