Former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant’s statue — which immortalizes his 81-point performance against the Toronto Raptors back in January of 2006 — contains a handful of misspellings.
In total, three names and words are spelled improperly. First, the last name of Jose Calderon — who spent eight of his 14 seasons in the NBA playing for the Raptors — is written out as “Calderson.”
Also, Von Wafer — a six-year NBA player who had stints playing with the Lakers, Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets — has his first name spelled as “Vom” on the statue and decision is spelled as “Decicion” in one instance.
Bryant accounted for over 60 percent of the Lakers’ 122 points in their 18-point victory over the Raptors. He shot 28-of-46 from the field, 7-of-13 from 3-point range and 18-of-20 from the charity stripe while also chipping in six rebounds, two assists, three steals and one block.
Only two other players on the Lakers — Smush Parker and Chris Mihm — reached double digits in scoring. The former finished with the second-most points on the team, as he dropped 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the floor and 1-of-5 from 3-point range.
As for the opposition, guard Mike James carried the scoring load, considering he totaled a team-high 26 points for the Raptors while shooting 10-of-15 from the field and 6-of-8 from deep. Furthermore, he dished out 10 assists compared to four turnovers.
Bryant’s 81 points against Toronto marks the second-most points that a player has scored in a single game in the history of the NBA. The only player to score more than 81 points in a single contest is Wilt Chamberlain, who dropped an unbelievable 100 points in March of 1962.
Now that the multiple spelling errors on Bryant’s statue have been made public, hopefully efforts will be made to correct these errors as soon as possible. Stay tuned for any and all possible updates on the misspelled names and words in the coming days.
