LA Lakers say they’ll fix the 3 typos found on the bronze structure outside Crypto.com Arena
A statue in honor of former Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant is displayed after being unveiled in a ceremony outside the NBA basketball team’s arena on Feb. 8 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)See 1 more photo
A 4,000-pound bronze statue of late Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was unveiled last month outside of LA’s Crypto.com Arena, showing the NBA legend walking off the court in his No. 8 jersey after scoring 81 points in a 2006 game against the Toronto Raptors. Now, a bit of an embarrassing update, from a grammatical point of view: There’s a trio of misspellings at the statue’s base, including of the names of two players who took part in that now-famous game.
- The typos: KTLA reports that Raptors guard Jose Calderon’s name is spelled wrong (they have it as “Calderson”), as is that of Lakers forward Von Wafer, whom the statue has instead named “Vom.” The word “decision” is also misspelled as “decicion.”
- Photos: German sports journalist Andre “Dre” Voigt posted pics of the errors over the weekend, though the Lakers say in a statement, “We have been aware of this for a few weeks,” per the AP. The outlet notes there are also “minor formatting mistakes” on the statue. The team says it’s working on a fix for all the flubs.
- More statues to come: At the February unveiling, Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, noted that two other statues, hopefully typo-free, are coming soon—one showing her husband in his No. 24 jersey (he changed numbers in 2006, after his 81-point game), and the other showing Bryant with their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, who died with him and seven others in a January 2020 helicopter crash, per NBC News