On February 8 2024 Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant revealed an iconic statue of the NBA legend. This statue joined six other Lakers basketball legends. Ever since his tragic death in 2020 his family had been making this statue to memorialize him and his legacy. Many of his friends, family, teammates and fans came to see the unveiling of the statue at the corner of Chick Hearn Court and Figueroa Street.
The moment captured in time within the statue of this NBA superstar is him walking off the court after scoring his career high of 81 points. This moment was in 2006 in a game against the Toronto Raptors. Currently the 19 foot statue that weighs 4,000 pounds sits outside of the Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles California.
The revealing of the statue was all happy, as it was a celebration of his career and his life that was cut short in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020 at 10 AM
This one statue isn’t the only one that they will be putting up.in the near future there will at least be two more statues put up to memorialize the Laker legend and his daughter, Giannas Bryant after their tragic death. These other two statues will be standing outside the crypto.com arena joining the first and original one.
The statue and date of the unveiling isn’t just there to honor Kobe but also his oldest daughter Gianna Bryant who had died four years ago in the helicopter crash with Kobe. The date of the revealing was 2/8/24 the date that includes both of Kobe’s numbers throughout his career and the 2 for his daughter Gianna’s number while she played basketball.
Kobe Bryant was one of the most inspirational basketball players of his time. Taking after one of his close friends Michael Jordan and trying to be the best player he could be. Kobe would play through almost any injury and through any pain. His reasoning for never missing a game or always playing was because he didn’t want kids and families who saved up for long periods of time to go see him play to not be able to see it happen because he was on the bench and not playing.
Kobe Bryant played by the one rule Mamba Mentality. As he said himself “Mamba mentality is all about focusing on the process and trusting in the hard work when it matters most,”. The Mamba mentality is one of the most influential things to come out of basketball it teaches people to never quit and always work hard.
On Friday, February ninth, Kobe’s statue was shown to the public. The Star Plaza was full of chants of “Kobe, Kobe, Kobe” all day long .
