In honor of his jerseys being retired, the fine designers at Spalding crafted two unique basketballs for Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant.
Kenyatta Bynoe, vice president of global marketing and partnerships at Spalding, tells Don Povia of The Outside Game that the balls, which were presented to Bryant following Monday night's moving ceremony inside the Staples Center, feature a black and gold finish with hand-set black crystals, a matte varnish snake scale cover material with a hand-sketched Black Mamba, dual-jersey number embellishments, and custom packaging.
“We could not let this moment go by without creating an exclusive basketball to celebrate the legendary career of Kobe Bryant,” Bynoe said. “He is a gift to the game we have loved as a brand for more than a century.”
Without question, Kobe Bryant will go down as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He's a five-time champion, 18-time All Star, and two-time scoring champion. Over the course of his illustrious career, the former No. 13 overall pick in the 1997 Draft recorded averages of 25.0 points on 45 percent shooting from the field (33 percent from beyond the arc), 5.2 rebounds, and 4.7 assists — all while knocking down 83.7 percent of his free-throws.
A pair of basketballs in Kobe's honor seems fitting.