Lakers unveil first of three Kobe Bryant statues at star-studded event (2024)

“Kobe would tell me his Lakers would beat my Lakers,” Johnson said Thursday. “I would tell him that my Lakers would beat his Lakers. We had that banter back and forth. I wouldn’t take it as a slight. I know that’s who he is. That’s what made him special.”

Bryant, who already was the first Lakers player to have two different jersey numbers retired, got another leg up on Johnson and the rest of Los Angeles’s sporting icons when the Lakers announced that the Hall of Fame guard, who died in a helicopter crash in 2020, will be honored with three statues outside Crypto.com Arena.

In the first statue, which was unveiled at a star-studded ceremony Thursday, Bryant appears in a white No. 8 jersey, holding one finger in the air as he did while walking off the court after scoring a career-high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006. Vanessa Bryant, Bryant’s widow, announced that the second statue will depict Bryant in the No. 24 jersey he wore later in his career and the third will show Bryant alongside his daughter Gianna, who died at age 13 in the helicopter crash.

“Kobe picked the pose you’re about to see,” Vanessa Bryant said, before confetti flew and a golden curtain dropped to reveal the 19-foot, 4,000-pound bronze statue. “So if anyone has any issues with it, tough s---.”

The first statue’s black base bears Bryant’s full name — Kobe Bean Bryant — and his “Black Mamba” nickname. Bryant stands atop two steps that are flanked by five Larry O’Brien championship trophies, and his career statistics and major accomplishments during his 20-year Lakers career are listed below the nameplate.

The statue was crafted by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, who created the Michael Jordan statue that soars outside of Chicago’s United Center. The work features several personal touches, including the tattooed names of Bryant’s four daughters that appear on his arm, a three-sided base to represent the famed “triangle” offense and a QR code that launches a video of Bryant’s highlights that was directed by Antoine Fuqua and narrated by Denzel Washington.

Johnson led a who’s who list of Lakers great at the invite-only unveiling ceremony: Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar, Phil Jackson, Jerry West, Pau Gasol, Michael Cooper, Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher, Mychal Thompson, Jamal Wilkes, Robert Horry, AC Green, Sasha Vujacic, Gary Payton and countless other luminaries. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka, Miami Heat great Dwyane Wade, Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson, singer-songwriter Ciara, and women’s basketball legends Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker also crowded inside a massive tent as hundreds of fans gathered outside a security perimeter to chant Bryant’s name.

In a rare public appearance since he retired as an executive, Jackson regaled the crowd with stories from his sometimes contentious working relationship with Bryant, noting that he once enlisted Jordan to stress the importance of buying into the team concept and passing the ball during a cigar bar meeting early in Bryant’s career.

But as soon as Bryant sat down, he declared: “Michael, I can take you one on one.”

Jordan, who was retired at the time, replied: “Well, I think you might. I’m 37 [years old] and you’re 22.”

Jackson said the exchange was “part of [Bryant’s] growing up years,” adding that Bryant’s progress as a leader was evident when comedian Jay Leno asked him about a teammate, Adam Morrison, who was always in street clothes. Bryant replied that Leno shouldn’t make fun of Morrison because “he puts in the work and he’s part of our team.”

“That’s when I was the proudest of Kobe,” Jackson said.

Bryant is the seventh member of the Lakers family to be honored with a statue outside Crypto.com Arena, joining Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar, West, Shaquille O’Neal, Elgin Baylor and broadcaster Chick Hearn.

Invited to speak alongside Vanessa Bryant, Buss, Fisher and broadcaster Stu Lantz, the 76-year-old Abdul-Jabbar joked that the first statue was created 35,000 years ago — “about the same time I entered puberty.”

“A statue is a wonderful contradiction,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “It captures a person frozen in time while, at the same time, acknowledges that the reason there is a statue in the first place is because a person is timeless.”

Buss said that she expected Lakers fans to hold wedding engagements in front of the statue as a nod to the love between Kobe and Vanessa Bryant, and recalled how her father, former Lakers owner Jerry Buss, would marvel that watching Bryant play was “like watching a miracle unfold.” Her father, she added, once proudly turned down a trade offer of five players for the 18-time all-star.

“Kobe is as rare as a flawless, five-carat diamond,” Buss recalled her father saying. “Five one-carat diamonds would never equal the same value.”