Vanessa Bryant, during the unveiling event of the first statue of Kobe Bryant, said that there would be 3 statues in total. The day of February 8, 2024 (2/8/24) was chosen specifically for unveiling the 5x champion’s statue. The first statue is a 19-foot bronze memorial outside the Crypto.com Arena and the dates 8 and 24 signify two numbers worn by Bryant (No. 8 and No. 24). Similarly, number 2 represents Gigi’s jersey number.

So the second statue will also have an identical numerology to showcase Kobe Bryant’s and Gigi’s statues. As per Dave McMenamin of ESPN, “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.”

It will be held in a private ceremony tomorrow and the public will be allowed to visit on Saturday. ESPN also added that the third statue is expected to be unveiled next year and will feature his No. 24 jersey, which he wore for the second half of his career.

Apart from Kobe Bryant, several Lakers players have been enshrined with a statue, starting from Magic Johnson in 2004. It was then followed by Jerry West in 2011, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 2012, and Elgin Baylor in 2018. Shaquille O’Neal, who got a statue made of him in 2017, narrated a video to signify the legacy of Kobe.

“5-time champion, 18-time All-Star. The face of the Lakers for two decades. He was the most competitive player I’ve ever seen and the best teammate I’ve ever had. Now he joins basketball royalty with an official shrine in LA. Let this statue make one thing clear: Kobe Bryant is forever.”

However, the emotional day later turned out to be a controversial one as the statue had plenty of mistakes.

How the emotional tribute of Kobe Bryant turned controversial

The statue had several typos which were highlighted on social media by journalist Andre Voigt. Spelling issues of former players and the words “coach’s decision” were obviously spelled wrong. A spokesperson from the Lakers Organization said, “We have been aware of this for a few weeks and are already working to get it corrected soon.”

In April, a month later, all the typos were corrected as the Associated Press revealed. However, when the mistakes came to light, nobody was happy and Stephen A. Smith even went on a rant about the situation. “Bad look. I love the Lakers organization. And the person who made those errors, I’m not going to say they should be, you know, fired or anything like that. But my God, you know, they should be shamed into making sure that they don’t make that kind of errors again.”

Hopefully, the unveiling tomorrow will be error-free, which is what all the Kobe Bryant fans want. The day should be celebrated and not be remembered by controversial decisions, especially when the mistakes can be avoided in the first place.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting pilot episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and SEC All-Freshman Team Selection, Silas Demary Jr.”