On February 8, the Los Angeles Lakers unveiled a statue of Kobe Bryant, the legendary player who spent his entire 20-year career with the franchise and led them to five NBA championships.
The statue, which depicts Bryant’s career-high 81-point game in 2006, was revealed in a ceremony attended by his family, former teammates, coaches, and fans.
The date of the unveiling, 2/8/24, was chosen to honor both numbers that Bryant wore during his career, as well as the number 2 that his daughter Gianna wore playing basketball. Gianna, along with seven others, died with Bryant in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020.
I personally haven’t been to Los Angeles ever since the statue was unveiled, so I haven’t had the chance to check out the many, many details (The statue is surrounded by five championship trophies, representing the titles that Bryant won with the Lakers in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, and 2010. The statue also features the names of Bryant’s four daughters, Natalia, Gianna, Bianka, and Capri, as tattoos on his arm, as requested by his wife Vanessa. The base of the statue is shaped like a triangle, a nod to the triangle offense that Bryant played under coach Phil Jackson. The base also includes Bryant’s many accolades, such as his 18 All-Star selections, his MVP award in 2008, his two Finals MVP awards in 2009 and 2010, and his induction into the Hall of Fame in 2020) in person.
But as often in life, when you focus on too many things, you lose sight of the important things… with the important things in case of the statue being to avoid mistakes.
My friend and colleague, fellow German Basketball journalist, Andre Voigt, had the chance to see the statue in person on Sunday. And to my dismay, he detected several mistakes on the Kobe Bryant statue.
Instead of Jose Calderon’s name on the boxscore of Kobe’s faithful 81-point night against the Raptors, it says Jose Calderson. Instead of Von Wafer’s correctly spelled name, it reads Vom Wafer, and instead of ‘Coach’s Decision’ it reads ‘Coach’s Decicion’, even though it was spelled correctly directly above.
This is pretty embarrassing.
Hm … Kobes Statue mit drei Fehlern? CalderSon, VoM Wafer, DeciCion? What? pic.twitter.com/5ea6zWuXJ7
— André „Dré“ Voigt (@drevoigt) March 10, 2024
