Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association.
Kobe Bryant: Crash photos| Uncle| Funeral| Statue location
Crash photos:
Medina told NBC Los Angeles that he brought the 160-pound bronze statue with him on a 4 a.m. hike to the crash site in the hills sitting above Calabasas. The sculptor said the figure will temporarily remain at the site before being removed.
Uncle:
The helicopter transporting all eight passengers was on its way to a girls’ basketball tournament that Gianna, 13, was scheduled to compete in. The aircraft wrecked in the hills west of Los Angeles amid extremely foggy conditions, and federal safety officials have since blamed pilot error for the crash.
The statue lists the names of the Bryants and the seven other victims who were killed in the Jan. 26, 2020, helicopter crash — John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their daughter, Alyssa; Christina Mauser; Sarah Chester and her daughter, Payton; and pilot Ara Zobayan — on its base.
Funeral:
A statue of late Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, was placed at the site of their helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., on Wednesday, two years to the day of the tragic deaths of them and seven others aboard the aircraft.
The four-foot statue, which was created by sculptor Dan Medina, depicts Bryant in his Lakers uniform with his arm around Gianna, who also is wearing a uniform while holding a basketball at her side. The pair are looking at each other while smiling.
Statue Location:
The piece depicts Kobe looking adoringly down at Gianna, who was just 13-years-old at the time of her passing, with his left arm on her shoulder.
She’s depicted carrying a basketball while looking up to her father, who in real life stood at 6ft6in.
Both father and daughter are wearing their respective basketball uniforms: Kobe in his Lakers No. 24 uniform, which was his second team number after wearing No. 8 in the first part of his career.
