The Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers are set to face off on Wednesday night, and Sixers center Joel Embiid wants to pay tribute in a unique way to the late Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna just over a year after they passed away.
Embiid will sport custom shoes featuring Kobe and Gianna against the Lakers. For what it's worth, the Sixers center has always been open about how much he adored and idolized Kobe ever since his days in Cameroon.
Philadelphia 76ers All-Star Joel Embiid’s new shoes tonight against the Los Angeles Lakers paying tribute to the late Kobe and Gianna Bryant. Embiid fell in love with basketball watching Bryant as kid in Cameroon. pic.twitter.com/xPcYGcvVfP
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 27, 2021
January 26, 2021 marked the one year anniversary of the tragic helicopter crash that killed Kobe, Gigi and seven others. With that said, NBA and players around the game hoped to honor Kobe in whatever way they could.
Joel Embiid mentioned in the past that his ultimate wish was to get drafted by the Lakers and team up with Kobe, and it will always be an inserting thought to wonder if that were the case. Instead, he ended up going at No.3 to the Sixers–with the Lakers' pick not until number seven.
For Embiid (and nearly every player really), Kobe was whom he looked up to when he was a kid, so the anniversary was a tough one to handle for the Sixers star. Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving rocked a classic Kobe jersey before the game on Monday, and the NBPA announced they were going to release 450 custom Kobe jerseys in memory of the Black Mamba in an attempt to honor his legacy.
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