“She was extraordinary,” Matt Mauser said of his bride, mom to kids Penny, Tom, and Ivy, and an assistant coach on Kobe’s Mamba Academy team. “She was incredibly witty, funny, funny like nobody you’ve ever met.”

And skilled enough on the court to catch the eye of a certain 18-time NBA All Star. With Matt and Christina both serving as coaches at the private Orange County, Calif. school that Kobe’s daughters attended, “He saw what an amazing mind [Christina] had for basketball and he brought her on,” Matt explained during his Jan. 27 Today appearance. “He asked her to teach the kids defense.”

Nicknamed MOD, as in Mother of Defense, “She was warm, she was incredibly bright, she was technologically incredibly savvy,” Matt continued. “She could figure out anything.” Now, he and his kids are trying to work out how to move forward while honoring her legacy. “I just try to live the life that Christina would want us to live,” he told The Orange County Register. “Life is for living, and life is beautiful despite all the stuff that we’ve been through and everybody has been through. You’re supposed to find joy in life.”