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The Los Angeles Lakers will put on their “Black Mamba” uniforms throughout Thursday’s recreation in opposition to the Denver Nuggets (10 p.m. ET on TNT) in celebration of Kobe Bryant, who will have a statue unveiled in his honor outside Crypto.com Arena earlier in the day.
Bryant, who died in a 2020 helicopter crash that additionally claimed the lifetime of his daughter, Gianna, helped design the uniforms, which function a snakeskin print and drop shadow numbers as a nod to the uniforms the Lakers wore throughout his rookie season in 1996-97.
The uniforms, which additionally embody a stylized “LA 24” brand on the waistband and the Nos. 8 and 24 underneath the flaps on the shorts in reference the 2 numbers Bryant wore throughout his profession, have been initially unveiled because the Lakers’ 2017-18 Metropolis Version set.
They returned within the opening spherical of the 2020 NBA Playoffs, as the Lakers donned the all-black uniforms in their 135-115 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Aug. 24 – which can be expressed as 8/24.
Los Angeles went on to seize its record-tying seventeenth NBA championship with a 4-2 collection victory over the Miami Warmth, with each recreation of the postseason performed in a “bubble” at Walt Disney World amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The uniforms, which have been additionally worn in Sport 2 of the Finals, notably featured a white heart-shaped patch with the No. 2 for Gianna, who performed for the Los Angeles Girl Mambas, the Mamba Sports activities Academy basketball crew coached by her father.
An 18-time All-Star and five-time NBA champion who performed his total 20-year profession in Los Angeles, Bryant would be the seventh Laker with a statue, becoming a member of Elgin Baylor, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Jerry West and Chick Hearn.
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