Gigi Hadid was emotional during her tryout on Victoria's Secret. (Photo : Reuters)
Sports Illustrated model and socialite Gigi Hadid revealed in an interview with Style.com about her undying purple-and-gold affiliation and her childhood crush who happened to be Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant.
Hadid, 18, disclosed that she used to sport full Lakers uniform to school every day, not to mention wearing purple and yellow braces and playing hoops with boys back in the third grade.
Despite becoming one of the most fast-rising stars in the fashion industry today, Hadid claimed that she has remained abreast with what's going on with her favorite team, insisting that she will never abandon the Lakers even after seeing them in quite a mess the last two seasons.
"I know they're not doing so well for me right now, but I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon. I'm still a die-hard Lakers fan and I still go to games when I'm there, even if they're losing," Hadid said.
After graduating from Malibu High School, where she once was the star player and captain of the volleyball team, Hadid has spent most of her time in New York, where she's working as a model for IMG and studying at The New School.
Hadid admitted that she watched Knicks games once and a while, but she seems not interested in switching teams as long as her childhood crush Kobe 'Bean' Bryant is still playing for the purple-and-gold.
"Yeah, exactly, so you feel me. I do go to Knicks games when I'm in New York because I need my basketball fix. But Kobe [Bryant] was my childhood crush. I had my 13th birthday at a Lakers game. Oh, and my cake was just white, and then they shaped a jersey [on top] with edible yellow spray paint and lined it in purple, put a zero [on it], and wrote my last name. I loved it. It was like the best thing that ever happened to me."
Hadid, the Model of the Year in the First Annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards, has been named the new face of Maybeline and is set to grace the 2015 Pirelli Calendar.
