THE LAKERS GIVES KOBE BRYANT A WELL DESERVED TRIBUTE
When he came to Staples Center for a last time a month ago to watch a Los Angeles Lakers game, Kobe Bryant was in floor seats with his 13-year-old little girl, Gianna, and LeBron James and others went over and offered their feelings of appreciation to probably the best player in NBA history.
Those seats were “empty” on Friday.
On their seats were roses and the No. 24 pullover of Kobe and No. 2 shirt of Gianna to respect their lives in the Lakers’ first game since the helicopter crash that killed the Bryants and seven others last Sunday.
It was a night without much precedent in the NBA and a game that incorporated a sad ceremony and felt progressively like a b-ball dedication. Five days after the stunning catastrophe, the Lakers’ 127-119 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, marked the finish of an overwhelming week for Bryant’s fans, including the genuinely drained players.
“We’re all grieving. We’re altogether hurt. We’re all heartbroken,” a sad James said as he tended to the group before the game in an offhand discourse.
The passings of the 41-year-old Bryant and eight others, three children with an youth ball game that day, were looked about the world this week. In any case, it was in Los Angeles, where Bryant sewed himself into the fabric of the city through the span of over two decades with the Lakers, the only team of his NBA career, where the pain was close to home. His death sent a whole American city into a condition of grieving.
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