LeBron James may be the best player in the world and the biggest free agent slam dunk by the Los Angeles Lakers since they whisked Shaquille O'Neal away from Florida about two decades ago, but Los Angeles is still “Bean” Town — Kobe Bean Bryant that is.
But that didn't stop some (very likely) El-ay residents to deface a Kobe mural. Painted in Melrose Avenue to pay homage to Kobe's final game on April 13th, 2016 (4.13) and is comprised of 413 triangles — a crudely taped photograph of James was plastered on the head portion, forcing Twitter user Andrew Perez to put matters in his own hands… with a shoe.
Saw this blasphemy of LeBron’s face taped on top of #mambaonmelrose, so I had to do what was right. Thank you for coming @KingJames, but @kobebryant is still the king of LA. pic.twitter.com/VbayCu0OxO
— Andrew Perez (@andoneperez) July 4, 2018
Perez — who shot a woeful 1-for-10 with the shoe — acknowledged that while he's glad that James decided to take his talents to California, Bryant is, and forever will be, their king. High praise considering that the team has been home to other all-time greats — most notably Magic Johnson, who's now the President of Basketball Operations and was instrumental in arranging for James to land in the City of Angels in the first place.
As for a possible tribute to the four-time Most Valuable Player, Melrose Avenue is known for its street art (among many others) and actually has two Michael Jordan murals despite the GOAT never having played for the franchise, proving that the city acknowledges transcendental superstar talent. So perhaps in the near future, James might end up in there.
Let's just hope no one plasters a Ben Simmons photo in there a decade from now.
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