Vanessa Bryant is reflecting on one of the most special days of Kobe's career ... wishing she had more time with the NBA legend on the 4-year anniversary of his retirement.
After 20 seasons in the NBA, Kobe finally hung it up on April 13, 2016 -- Mamba Day -- and went out in true Bryant fashion by dropping 60 points on the Utah Jazz.
Vanessa went to social media Monday to explain why the special day was more about family than basketball.
"My husband worked his ass off for 20 years," Bryant said on Instagram. "Gave it his all. All he wanted was to spend time with our girls and me to make up for lost time."
"He wanted to be there for every single milestone and special moment in our girls lives."
Vanessa goes on to list how many accomplishments Kobe had in the 3 years and 9 months they shared of his time away from basketball.
"We had 2 more daughters, he won an Oscar, he opened Granity studios, he became a 5x best selling author and coached Gianna’s basketball team in that time."
Kobe and Gianna -- along with 7 others -- were killed in a helicopter accident back in January ... and Vanessa wishes she could change what happened that fateful day.
"I wish I could back to that morning, every day. I wish they had a normal local game on 1/26. Life truly isn’t fair. This is just senseless."
Since his passing, Kobe has been voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and will be formally inducted later this year.