Seventeen-time NBA champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, revealed on Thursday that they will be paying tribute to Hall of Famer and former NBA star Kobe Bryant with a statue in front of the franchise’s Crypto.com Arena, next year.
The Lakers announced that Bryant, who spent the entirety of his 20-year NBA career with them, will have his statue erected on February 8, 2024, a date that coincides with the two numbers the five-time champion wore during his time in the City of Angels and also the number of his daughter Gianna Bryant, who wore No. 2 while playing youth basketball in a team he coached.
The team made the announcement on August 24 – a day that has been renamed as “Kobe Day” in honour of the Black Mamba, who wore the numbers 8 and 24 for the Lakers.
Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s wife, made the announcement in a video on the Lakers’ social media platforms that the statue will be unveiled at Star Plaza outside the stadium just before the Lakers take on the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
“As you know, Kobe played his entire 20-year NBA career as a Los Angeles Laker,” Vanessa said in a video. “Since arriving in this city and joining the Lakers organization, he felt at home here, playing in the City of Angels.
“On behalf of the Lakers, my daughters and me, I am so honored that, right in the center of Los Angeles, in front of the place known as the house that Kobe built, we are going to unveil his statue so that his legacy can be celebrated forever.”
Kobe’s legacy immortalized.
2•8•24 pic.twitter.com/WHQBXZJ2gD
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) August 24, 2023
Bryant, the NBA’s fourth-all-time leading scorer, will become the sixth former Lakers player and seventh employee to be honoured with a statue at the arena, which has housed the franchise since 1999.
He follows in the footsteps of Elgin Baylor, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, and Chick Hearn as former Lakers with statues outside the arena.
Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, sadly passed away in a helicopter crash in January 2020. The father and daughter were flying together with seven others to a basketball competition when their helicopter crashed in a fog in Calabasas, California.
Lakers revealed that Bryant himself participated in the initial planning process of the statue, which was created by renowned sculptor Julie Rotblatt Amrany of the Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt Amrany.
Bryant, who retired in 2016, was an 18-time NBA All-Star and the first player in NBA history to play at least 20 seasons with a single franchise. He helped the Lakers win five NBA titles (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010) and won the Finals MVP award twice (2009, 2010).
A two-time Olympic gold medallist, Bryant is the Lakers’ all-time leader in regular season games played (1,346), points (33,643), 3-pointers made (1,827), steals (1,944), and free throws made (8,378). He was posthumously enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021, along with Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan.
