Details leaked on 2nd Kobe Bryant statue being revealed on Friday and 3rd next season

Published by

Jesse Cinquini

August 1, 2024 12:54 pm

Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports

A statue of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna is set to be revealed in a private unveiling scheduled for Friday, per ESPN.

The elder Bryant already has one statue to his name outside of Crypto.com Arena, the home arena of the storied Lakers franchise. A bronze statue memorializing his historic 81-point performance versus the Toronto Raptors was revealed back in February, although the statue initially contained three misspelled names and words in total.

His scoring outburst against Chris Bosh and company in 2006 marked the second-most points that a player has scored in a single game in the history of the NBA. Only Wilt Chamberlain — who dropped an unbelievable 100 points versus the New York Knicks in 1962 — has totaled more points in an NBA game.

The new statue will be located in close proximity to the Los Angeles Kings’ monument, which celebrated the Kings’ 50th anniversary as an NFL franchise.

But on top of the elder Bryant’s statue with the younger Bryant, there will be another statue honoring the five-time NBA champion that will be revealed to the public sometime next season, according to ESPN. The third statue will reportedly depict the elder Bryant donning No. 24, a number he wore when he helped lead the Lakers to back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.

The elder Bryant spent the entirety of his 20-year NBA career in Los Angeles and averaged 25.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.7 assists per contest across 1,346 combined regular-season games with the Lakers.

His final season in the NBA came during the 2015-16 campaign, when he averaged 17.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game during the regular season for an iteration of the Lakers that ended up with a regular-season record of 17-65, which marked the worst record of any team in the Western Conference.

Lakers fans would be wise take an opportunity to visit the statue of the elder Bryant and younger Bryant once it becomes available to the public on Saturday morning.

Jesse Cinquini

Jesse is a sports journalist with extensive experience covering the NBA. He has worked as a staff writer covering the Lakers’ dreaded rivals, the Boston Celtics, for SB Nation. He has also covered the New York Knicks for The Knicks Wall.