It has been confirmed, former LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant will have his own statue otuside of the Staples Center.
In an interview with ESPN Los Angeles, Jeanie Marie Buss, who is the controlling owner and president of the Los Angeles Lakers, said Bryant's statue will be revealed Bryant's statue reveal will most likely be around the time he gets inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame. Pretty cool!
Buss said:
“Our tradition is to retire a jersey when a player is entered into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Now, to be considered for the Hall of Fame, you have to be retired for five years. Obviously, we didn’t stick with that rule, because when Magic Johnson retired, we immediately retired his jersey. Shaq asked to have his jersey retired while my dad was still alive because he wanted my dad to know he wanted to retire a Laker. So we made an exception there. We obviously made an exception for Kobe two years after he retired, because we know he’s going into the Hall of Fame. So what we did with Shaq, when he went into the Basketball Hall of Fame, that’s when we unveiled his statue. So I guess we can assume that at some point Kobe will be considered for the Basketball Hall of Fame, and we’ll figure it out.”
Bryant has about three years to go to be eligible for Hall-of-Fame, so it we can expect to see Kobe get his bronze statue in 2021.
Listen below:
Source: Getty Images