“Basketball Love”: Nick Kyrgios’ Kobe Bryant Sleeve Tattoo on Right Arm

Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios is one of the most entertaining players on the Tour. Overall these years, he has emerged as a true crowd favorite. One of the main reasons for that is due to the 26-year-old’s habit of involving the crowd during his matches. 

Recently, Nick Kyrgios revealed his tattoo featuring his idol and basketball legend, Kobe Bryant. He got inked on his right arm and it has a Kobe’s smiling face imprinted in a LA Lakers jersey. When he playing his opening round match against Ugo Humbert, fans got a glimpse of the ink. 

Nick Kyrigos got inked prior to the lockdown

The Australian got the tattoo in 2020 just before the lockdown. Over the years, fans have been aware of Nick’s liking for basketball. Besides Bryant, he idolizes LeBron James and Michael Jordan too. In fact, he has a LeBron tattoo as well on the other arm. There is also the Jordans, Michael Jordan’s famous shoe range in association with Nike. 

Kyrgios has made his feelings for basketball and the names of these legends mentioned above and stated, “That was a special moment for me, basketball’s my life. I play tennis but I follow basketball every day. But for me personally, I struggled a lot, I was crying when I was walking out on the court that day. I definitely wanted to get something in memory of him. We can never really emulate what he did but there can be moments where we can try.”

The Australian star idolized Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant was one of the greatest players of all time. Unfortunately, he died in a helicopter crash in January 2020. The entire sporting community was taken aback. It was during the Australian Open that year and Kyrgios had even walked on the court with tears in his eyes, wearing the Kobe Bryant jersey. 

At the moment, Kyrigos is busy preparing for his third-round match against Felix Auger Aliassime at the Wimbledon Championships 2021. It will be interesting to see how he performs in this interesting duel. 

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