Lakers honor Kobe Bryant in emotional pregame ceremony featuring the legend’s own words

As the cellist Ben Hong played somberly at center court, Lakers fans lifted their eyes to the video boards in Staples Center on Friday night and heard from Kobe Bryant himself about his amazing career and his wonderful life as a husband and a father of four girls.

The six-minute video tribute showing highlights of his time in the NBA and with his family used Bryant’s words as the narration. The crowd cheered as they recognized Bryant’s voice and saw a young Kobe talking about his dream to become one of the greatest basketball players in history.

The emotional ceremony came before Los Angeles played Portland in its first game since Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday as they traveled through Calabasas to a youth basketball game.

After the video, the team had 24.2 seconds of silence.

Lakers forward LeBron James, who came to the team as a free agent in 2018,then gave a speech, starting with reading the names of the nine victims — John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah and Payton Chester, Christina Mauser, Ara Zobayan and the Bryants.

James said that he looked at the ceremony as a celebration.

He said they were celebrating the career of a kid who came to Los Angeles and retired as a 38-year-old longtime veteran who became “the best daddy we’ve seen over the last three years.”

James said he had been comforted by the Los Angeles community and the Lakers family.

Before the game against the Portland Trail Blazers, there were two floor seats adorned with roses and jerseys honoring Bryant and daughter Gianna, who was an emerging basketball sensation before her death. They likely were the only two of the 19,000-plus seats to be empty Friday night.

Other photos of the Staples Center showed seats draped with a yellow T-shirt with either a purple and white No. 8 or No. 24. Bryant wore both numbers playing for the team and the Lakers retired both at the end of his career.

 

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x