The Los Angeles Lakers are playing their first game since Kobe Bryant‘s death Friday night, and L.A. Live officials are asking fans without a ticket to the game against the Portland Trail Blazers to stay home. The L.A. Live campus, which includes the Staples Center and Microsoft Theater, has been the scene of a makeshift memorial to Bryant, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash. Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna was also among the nine victims.
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Since Bryant’s death, fans have been flocking to the Staples Center area to leave jerseys, candles, flowers, balloons, letters and other tokens in his memory. Officials told fans without tickets to the game to avoid the area Friday night, especially as the game will not be shown on the LCD screens outside the arena, reports ESPN.
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“If you do not have a ticket tonight for the Lakers game, do not come down to L.A. Live,” Lee Zeidman, the president of Staples Center, Microsoft Theater and L.A. Live, said Friday. “Stay home with your loved ones. It’s going to be a tremendous emotional tribute to Kobe, Gianna and the seven others and you don’t want to miss it.”
“We’re not showing it on any LED screens here in downtown Los Angeles, so stay home with your loved ones, watch this tremendous tribute by the Los Angeles Lakers to the Bryant family and the others who lost their lives and hug your loved ones tonight, because you just never know,” Zeidman added.
Zeidman assured fans L.A. Live was honored to be the center of tributes for Bryant, Gianna and the other victims of the crash and were not dissuading people from turning the area into a memorial. They plan to give Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, and their three surviving daughters the items left outside.
“We’re going to take all the perishables, i.e., the flowers and the plants, and we’re going to do something that they did [after] the tragic Manchester bombing [in 2017] where Ariana Grande was singing,” Zeidman told ESPN. “Our plan is to get with a company and grind up all those flowers into mulch and spread it around L.A. Live and Staples Center in our planters, because we felt what they did was a tremendous tribute.”
“This means that all that love and outpouring from all the fans who have brought things down here to donate will still be here around our campus when we’re done,” he explained.
After the Super Bowl on Sunday, L.A. Live officials will catalog everything left behind and will put a sign out telling people not to leave anymore items.
“We plan on putting signs out Monday morning that due to other contractually obligated events, please do not bring items down to L.A. Live and Staples Center,” Zeidman said. “But we encourage you to make donations of whatever [amount] that you can to MambaSportsFoundation.org and MambaOnThree.org. We encourage you to do that instead of bringing additional items here.”
The Lakers and Trail Blazers tip-off at 10 p.m. ET, and the fame will air nationally on ESPN. Before the game, the Lakers revealed the KB memorial patch they will wear and laid Bryant jerseys over every seat in the Staples Center.
Photo credit: Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images
