Kobe Bryant: Fans Left More Than 1,300 Basketballs Outside Staples Center in Tribute to Lakers Legend

The Los Angeles Lakers had a special ceremony on Friday night which honored Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other victims who died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. There was also a memorial for Bryant outside the Staples Center; the cleanup of those thousands of items began on Monday morning. During the cleanup, Staples Center President Lee Zeidman posted a photo on his Twitter account that showed some of the 1,353 basketballs left outside of the area, many of them bearing written messages.

We began the cleanup at 4am ⁦@LALIVE⁩ XBox Plaza and we have now boxed 1353 basketballs dedicated to Kobe and Gianna. Truly amazing the outpouring of love from the City of Angels in honor of the 9 who lost their lives 1/26/20 pic.twitter.com/MUN21LNupH

— Lee Zeidman (@LeeZeidman) February 3, 2020

Zeidman told the Los Angeles Times the items are being cataloged and sent to the Bryant family per Kobe's wife Vanessa Bryant's request.

"It will have been a week," Zeidman said to the LA Times. "We have contractually obligated events that are moving in (to the arena). Vanessa had reached out to us and said, 'Our family would like the items out there.' So we're going to catalog every one of them. By that I mean T-shirts, letters, basketballs, stuffed animals, toys. We're going to put those in specially made containers and we're going to ship them to the family."

Zeidman also said the flowers that were sent by fans will be composted and turned into mulch to use in the city and around the Staples Center. He wants to have everything cleaned up by next week and he has a request for fans who want to bring something.

"Our goal is to somehow have it cleaned up as we relate to the middle of next week and we're asking people — we're going to put signage all around LA Live and Staples Center — if you still feel the need to do something, you can certainly come down here," he said. "But we hope that you wouldn't bring any gift and flowers, but that you donate to the Mamba Foundations that they've already set up. Then we try to get back to whatever normalcy is around the campus."

The Staples Center opened in 1999, which was three years after Bryant was drafted by the Lakers. Most fans and experts would say the Staples Center is the house that Bryant built, as he led the team to five NBA Championships in that building. In 2010, the Lakers hosted the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA finals and Bryant scored 23 points en route to an 83-79 win. After the game, Bryant was named NBA Finals MVP.