Many have been waiting in great anticipation over when a statue of late, great Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant will be unveiled outside of the Crypto.com Arena. Ever since his tragic passing, many have wondered when he will be forever immortalized outside of the arena he made famous.
Lakers owner Jeanie Buss has continually said that once things are in place, the fans will know, but that didn’t stop rumors from popping up. The most recent one said that the statue would also involve his daughter Gianna Bryant who also perished in the crash, and would be unveiled on August 8, 2024, representing both of Kobe’s numbers that he wore throughout his Lakers career.
But it looks as if those rumors were false. According to Arash Markazi of The Messenger, there is still no set date for the unveiling of the Kobe statue and while conversations have been had, nothing is set and stone just yet:
The Kobe & Gigi statue unveiling on 8/8/24 report is not true according to multiple people at the Lakers and AEG.
Kobe is getting a statue one day. We all know that. There has been talk about including Gigi but a statue hasn’t been commissioned and a date has not been set yet. pic.twitter.com/l4zboVAM5U
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) August 22, 2023
It is unfortunate to hear as the 8/8/24 date of the unveiling makes so much sense and would be a wonderful gesture. As Markazi said, Kobe will be getting a statue one day, and it might still be on that day, but nothing between the Lakers and the Bryant estate has been agreed to just yet.
Something of this magnitude, paying respect to arguably the greatest player in Lakers franchise history, has to be done right and be perfect. There is no doubt the Lakers will exhaust all options to ensure exactly that and Kobe’s wife Vanessa and the rest of the Bryant family undoubtedly want the same.
Jeanie Buss has continually said that when the time is right, the fans will get the update and that time simply has yet to come.
Lakers owner Jeanie Buss shares favorite Kobe Bryant memories
Of course, Kobe had so many on-court memories during his time with the Lakers, and there’s a couple that stick out in the mind of Jeanie Buss.
The Lakers owner recently spoke on a couple of her favorites, noting how his famed 81-point game was not a case of him running up the score but rather doing everything he could to bring the Lakers back from a halftime deficit.
Buss then recalled arguing with then-boyfriend and Lakers coach Phil Jackson about not leaving Kobe in a few weeks earlier when he famously outscored the Dallas Mavericks through three quarters, finishing with 62 points without touching the floor for the final 12 minutes.