The Kobe Bryant statue outside of Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles has finally been fixed.
The nearly 20-foot bronze statue of the Los Angeles Lakers legend was unveiled in February, though several errors on the statue were quickly brought to light. Officials finished the renovations of the statue on Tuesday morning, ahead of the Lakers’ final home game of the regular season against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.
While the statue — which sits in front of several other statues of other iconic Los Angeles athletes — has been a very popular spot for fans since it was first built, several errors on it were quickly pointed out.
The names of Jose Calderon and Von Wafer were misspelled in a replica box score from Bryant’s 81-point game in 2006 on the statue. The phrase “Coach’s Decision” was misspelled there, too, and there was a formatting error on the side where Bryant’s career accomplishments were listed.
Bryant’s signature was also recreated on the statue. It now reads just, “Kobe,” instead of “Kobe 24,” as he’s wearing his No. 8 Lakers jersey in the statue.
The Lakers are still planning to erect two more statues honoring Bryant outside of the arena in the near future. One statue will feature Bryant in his No. 24 jersey, and the other will feature him and his daughter Gianna. Those two, along with seven others, were all killed in a helicopter crash in Southern California in 2020.
The Lakers have yet to determine where those two statues will be placed outside of the arena, or when they will be finished.
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