According to a report from DailyMail.com, the Los Angeles Lakers are completing plans to unveil a Kobe Bryant statue featuring Gigi Bryant on Mamba Day 2024.
In Los Angeles, new murals are still being created in honor of Kobe and Gigi, and August is unofficially Mamba month with 8/8 and 8/24 both recognized as Mamba Day.
The statue will sit outside of Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena.
Lakers owner Jeanie Buss previously made known plans to erect a statue for Bryant after he, his 13-year-old daughter, Gigi, six friends and a pilot were killed in a helicopter crash in January of 2020.
According to DailyMail.com, a source informed them that Bryant's widow, Vanessa, is involved with the plans, but cautioned that no artist has been commissioned for the task as of yet. .
Lakers fans have been losing patience waiting for a memorial in Bryant's honor, although many have assumed that the team is waiting until 2024 to unveil the statue.
There already was one Kobe and Gigi statue placed at the site of the crash in Calabasas, California, but there were no plans to keep the piece there permanently.
The statue, a 150-pound bronze sculpture, is the work of Southern California artist Dan Medina and portrayed Bryant in his Lakers uniform with his arm around Gigi, who was a blossoming basketball player at the time of the crash.
The inscription at the base of the statue reads:
'Heroes come and go but legends are forever,'
along with the names of the other crash victims — Christina Mauser; Payton, and Sarah Chester; John, Keri, and Alyssa Altobelli; and pilot Ara Zobayan.
The statue is a smaller version of a life-size sculpture Medina is working on that he anticipates will find a location in downtown Los Angeles.
Medina went on to state that he hopes the smaller version will eventually find its home at the crash site.
'I think we did it the right way. I didn't break any laws. There was no trash left behind,' he told The Associated Press in 2022. 'I hope by showing that something we did spontaneous and the right way can lead to something further.
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