Basketball: Resurfaced photo of Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant shows incredible bond

Eagle-eyed internet sleuths have highlighted a touching aspect of a photograph on Gianna Bryant's phone. Photo / AP

Just when you thought it was safe to put the tissues away comes another example of the unique bond Kobe Bryant shared with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

A day after the NBA legend and potential future WNBA star were farewelled in an emotional memorial service in Los Angeles, a photograph of the two sharing a laugh while watching a women's college basketball game in California last December has resurfaced.

The image has been published often in the wake of the pair's death in a helicopter crash last month, but only now has a heartbreaking bit of detail been spotted.

Eagle-eyed internet sleuths have highlighted a touching aspect of a photograph on Gianna Bryant's phone. Photo / AP

If you look closely at Gianna's phone, it shows she kept a picture of her dad planting a kiss on her forehead at a Lakers game taken four weeks earlier.

During her speech at Tuesday's memorial service, their wife and mother, Vanessa, spoke about how Kobe and Gianna "naturally gravitated towards each other".

Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant attend a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Atlanta Hawks. Photo / Getty

She was "an incredible athlete". He "loved" being her basketball coach.

"She had Kobe's ability to listen to a song and have all the lyrics memorised after listening to the song a couple of times; it was their secret talent," Vanessa said.

"He was thoughtful and always wrote the best love letters and cards, and Gigi had his wonderful ability to express her feelings into paper and make you feel her love through his words. She was thoughtful like him. They were so easy to love. Everybody naturally gravitated towards them," she added.

"They were funny, happy, silly, and they loved life. They were so full of joy and adventure. God knew they couldn't be on this Earth without each other. He had to bring them home to have them together."