Statue depicting Kobe Bryant and daughter Gigi Bryant outside Crypto.com Arena to be unveiled on Friday

The first statue, a 19-foot bronze memorial to Bryant’s 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors, was unveiled on Feb. 8. Friday’s date (8/2/24) holds similar numerology meaning to the February ceremony (2/8/24), representing both of Bryant’s uniform numbers (8 and 24) and the No. 2 that 13-year-old Gigi wore on the basketball court. The statue of the father and daughter is located near the Los Angeles Kings’ monument celebrating the team’s 50th anniversary. It will be available for the public to visit starting Saturday morning, sources told ESPN. -via ESPN / August 1, 2024

Russell appeared on the Run Your Race podcast and the Lakers guard spoke about that year with Kobe, saying he was so young and naive that he wasn’t really hearing what he was trying to teach him, but as time passed it began to resonate with him: “Great time. I mean, once again I was just naive to his whole legacy at that time. I’m 18 bro, so I’m young and dumb. Everything’s funny. Kobe Bryant, let me see if I can make him laugh, just young and dumb bro, so I got it the hard way. He wasn’t laughing, he was serious all the time. But he little bro’d me though, it wasn’t like ‘shoo fly’ it was like ‘lil bro, you shouldn’t do that, think about this.’ And I’m moving at 100 miles an hour and he’d be talking like he was Mr. Miyagi and I’d hear him, and then I’m moving again, and then you’ll get a text from him, and then I’m moving again. It was a blur for real for real, but little things come back and I’ll remember a lot of stuff he was saying. -via Lakers Nation / July 30, 2024

Eurohoops: 👀🔥 Jrue Holiday names the three toughest players he’s had to defend. pic.twitter.com/SHf3LSdCR8 -via Twitter @Eurohoopsnet / July 25, 2024