( 📸: Getty Images )
Cousins! Legendary NBA all-star Kobe Bryant‘s legacy is being immortalized with the unveiling of a statue right outside the Crypto.com arena!
The big news was announced a day after Kobe’s 45th birthday on Wednesday, by his wife Vanessa Bryant alongside the Los Angeles Lakers organization. The official unveiling is scheduled for February. 8th, 2004. The date symbolizes Kobe and his daughter Gianna’s jersey numbers.
“As you know, Kobe played his entire 20-year NBA career as a Los Angeles Laker,” said Vanessa in a video posted to social media. “Since arriving in this city and joining the Lakers organization, he felt at home here, playing in the City of Angels.”
“On behalf of the Lakers, my daughters, and me, I am so honored that, right in the center of Los Angeles, in front of the place known as the house that Kobe built, we are going to unveil his statue so that his legacy can be celebrated forever,” she added.
According to reports from NBC News, Kobe will be the seventh Laker monumentalize with a statue. He now joins Elgin Baylor, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Jerry West and Chick Hearn.
“Kobe’s transcendent spirit is always and forever in our hearts – inspiring us every day,” Rob Pelinka, Los Angeles Lakers Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager, said in a statement. “And now, with the unveiling of this powerful and beautiful statue, he will have a physical presence, too. A place on the hallowed ground Kobe created, where we can all gather and pay honor to a mighty and great man.”
Sources state that Kobe’s statue was created by sculptor Julie Rotblatt Amrany of the Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt Amrany.