The Los Angeles Lakers immortalized one of their greatest icons this Thursday. The franchise unveiled the statue made in honor of Kobe Bryant in front of the Crypto.com Arena.
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With this, the shooting guard, who passed away in a tragic helicopter accident in 2020, now joins the list of immortalized stars who represented the team on the court such as Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his friend and partner on the court, Shaquille O’Neal.
Sculpted in bronze and measuring around 5.8 meters high, the monument was purposely inaugurated on February 8, 2024, in reference to the two numbers used by the athlete during his career (8 and 24).
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The image represents the five-time NBA champion wearing jersey number 8, in a pose he struck in the game in which he scored an unbelievable 81 points against the Raptors, in 2006.
Furthermore, the athlete’s wife and widow, Vanessa Bryant, was present during the ceremony, which took place before the match against the Denver Nuggets, and announced that two more statues will be erected in memory of the Black Mamba: one with his daughter Gianna, who also died in the accident, and another with uniform number 24.
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