Warriors Honor Kobe Bryant with Tribute Video and Shirt
By Jason Aniel
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 11 Feb 2020
San Francisco, CA—Before tip-off of the Golden State Warriors vs. Los Angeles Lakers in Chase Center last Saturday night, the Warriors organization paid tribute to future hall of fame NBA great Kobe Bryant, his 13 year old daughter Gianna, and seven others killed in a helicopter crash back on January 26. The Warriors just began their two week long road trip when the tragedy occurred. This was the Warriors’ first home game since the accident and oddly enough it was against the team Kobe spent his entire 20 year NBA career playing for—the Lakers.
The organization provide its fans in attendance and the players t-shirts displaying Kobe’s number 8 and 24 jersey number and Gianna’s number 2 jersey. Stephen Curry, still nursing a left hand injury, wore a retro Lakers Kobe Bryant #24 Jersey while on the bench. The tribute began with nine beams of light shined on the court to symbolize the nine victims of the crash and a 24.8 second moment of silence. Then instead of the typical hype video to introduce the home team, a tribute video highlighting Kobe’s memorable moments in the NBA and against the Warriors was played.
Bryant was dominate during much of his career against the Warriors, winning 51 of 67 games against the Warriors. Los Angeles and the Bay Area are long standing sports rivals and during Warriors home games, Laker nation would often times outnumber the Warriors fans in attendance. Back in December 6, 2000, the Lakers and Warriors played a historical game where Bryant and Warriors forward Antawn Jameson each score 51 points. For Bryant, it was the first time he had reached 50 points in a game.
It was also against the Warriors that Bryant had one of his toughest moments of his career, when he suffered a torn left Achilles tendon on April 12, 2013. Many fans remember that moment when Kobe made two free throws and walked off the court after the injury. Klay Thompson, who grew up in the Los Angeles area and trained with Bryant, had what many described as his “Kobe Moment” when he shot two free throws after being taken out of game 6 of last year’s NBA finals with a torn ACL. Thompson ran from the locker back to the court to shoot two free throws and tried to stay in the game.
The Warriors ended up losing to the Lakers 125-120, but many in attendance in San Francisco will remember the tribute and respect paid to one of the greatest NBA players of all time.
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