On Thursday evening, the Los Angeles Lakers unveiled a statue of late franchise icon Kobe Bryant before their home game against the Denver Nuggets. Ever since Bryant retired from the sport in 2016, it was perhaps inevitable that he would one day get a statue in front of the Lakers home arena, known as the Staples Center then and now the Crypto.com Arena.
Before the statue was unveiled, a host of speakers addressed the crowd of anxious Lakers fans in front of the arena, including Vanessa Bryant, Kobe's widow.
During her speech, Vanessa Bryant addressed critics who may not be happy with what pose the statue depicted the late icon in.
“For the record, Kobe picked the pose you're about to see. So if anybody has any issue with it, tough sh*t,” said Bryant, per Spectrum SportsNet Live.
The statue ended up depicting Bryant in his number eight jersey, which he wore for the first half of his career, with one hand held toward the sky, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter.
It would be hard to overstate just how much Kobe Bryant accomplished during his two decades spent with the Lakers, including five NBA championships (three of which were won in that number eight jersey), along with an MVP award, and of course, who could forget the iconic 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors in 2006 (also in the number eight jersey).
All told, Bryant's career is certainly worthy of a permanent reminder of his greatness every time fans enter the arena.
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