The husband of basketball coach Christina Mauser, one of the nine victims of the helicopter crash that killed celebrated basketball player Kobe Bryant on Sunday, has paid tribute to her calling her extraordinary.
“I love my wife with everything I had. I want more time,” Matthew Mauser said of his wife Christina. “She was extraordinary.”
In an emotional interview, Matthew revealed that telling the news to their children was the hardest thing he has ever done.
“How do you tell a child their mommy is no longer with us? They screamed, they yelled and I just held them,” he said.
The adoring husband has been left with three children aged 3, 9 and 11.
As a father and husband, Matthew confessed that he was only trying to figure out how to navigate life with three kids and no mom. “I’m scared. I think more than anything I’m a little scared about the future,” he admitted.
Love brewed on the basketball court
Matthew and Christina both taught at the Harbor Day School in Newport Beach, California, where Bryant’s daughter, Gianna, who also perished in the crash, was a student. Christina was the assistant girls basketball coach while Matt is the team’s head coach.
Matthew eulogized his wife of 14 years as an amazing athlete. He recalled how they played basketball on one of their first dates and her prowess as a basketball player made him fall in love.
“Her moves were unlike any girl I have dated and I fell in love right there,” Matthew shared. "She was quick, she was witty and she had an amazing sense of humour."
"I just want people to know how amazing my wife was," he added. "I want everybody to know not only about my wife but about the other people on that helicopter that were amazing people. Including Gianna and KB. It was a helicopter full of incredibly talented, hardworking, sweet, kind, fantastic people."
Love is…