LOS ANGELES — The Lakers on Tuesday finished fixing multiple errors on the Kobe Bryant statue outside of Crypto.com Arena just before the team’s final home game of the regular season against the Golden State Warriors.
Among the typos/errors on the statue that were fixed: former Lakers guard Von Wafer’s name being misspelled on the box score of the marble base of the statue; former Toronto Raptors guard José Calderón’s name being misspelled on the box score; and the word “decision” in “Coach’s Decision” being misspelled.
A formatting error related to Bryant’s Olympic gold medals was also fixed on the front of the base and Bryant’s facsimile signature was recreated to read “Kobe,” rather than “Kobe 24,” since the statue shows Bryant wearing his white, No. 8 Lakers uniform.
German basketball journalist André Voigt shared photos of the errors on March 11 on X (formerly known as Twitter), with the post going viral. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin first reported that the errors were fixed Tuesday morning.
The name of the statue’s sculptor, Julie Rotblatt Amrany, was also added to the base.
The Lakers unveiled the 19-foot, 4,000-pound statue of the late superstar on Feb. 8.
Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow, said during the dedication ceremony last month that the statue, which depicts Kobe in his No. 8 jersey with his right index finger raised as he walked off the court following his 81-point performance in a victory over the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006, is the first of three that will be created to honor the five-time NBA champion, who retired in 2016.
Another statue will feature Bryant in his No. 24 jersey, which he wore for the second half of his career, while a third will depict Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, who died with him and seven others in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020, in Calabasas. The planned locations and unveiling dates for the other two statues have yet to be announced.
LeBRON IN, A.D. OUT
LeBron James was available against the Warriors despite experiencing flu-like symptoms, while Anthony Davis was sidelined because of a headache and nausea, the Lakers announced two hours before tipoff.
Davis only played the first quarter of Sunday’s 127-117 home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves after Kyle Anderson hit Davis on the left eye with his forearm on a Davis putback dunk with 25 seconds left in the quarter.
The hit aggravated the eye injury Davis suffered in a March 16 home loss to the Warriors after getting hit by Golden State rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis, which led to Davis only playing first-quarter minutes in that game, too.
“Just a super-big game, obviously,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said pregame. “He showed up to the arena trying to do everything he could to play but he just couldn’t quite overcome the headache and the nausea.
“But at the end of the day, next man up. It’s next man up. We need everybody just doing it together. Not one individual trying to take everything on their shoulders. Just stay connected as a group on both sides of the ball.”
James didn’t play against the Timberwolves because of the flu-like symptoms. He showed up to the arena on Sunday for his pregame process before heading back home before the game started.
James arrived at the arena a little over an hour before tipoff on Tuesday.
“Just a lot of rest and fluids,” Ham said of James’ progression from Sunday to Tuesday. “A lot of rest and fluids.”
