Second statue of Kobe Bryant being unveiled in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A statue of late Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gigi Bryant, was scheduled to be unveiled during a private ceremony on Friday, according to a published report.

The statue is located outside Crypto.com Arena near the Los Angeles Kings’ monument celebrating the team’s 50th anniversary, ESPN reported, citing anonymous sources. The statue will be available for the public to visit starting Saturday morning.

The statue is the second of three planned monuments to Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash along with Gigi Bryant and seven others in January 2020.

The first statue, unveiled on Feb. 8, is a 19-foot bronze memorial to Bryant’s 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors.

Friday’s date (8/2/24) holds similar numerology meaning to the February ceremony (2/8/24), representing both of Bryant’s uniform numbers (8 and 24) and the No. 2 that 13-year-old Gigi wore on the basketball court.