LeBron James has been mourning the loss of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant as he, his 13-year old daughter Gianna and seven other people died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. James recently got a new tattoo to pay tribute to Bryant, but on Monday during practice, James was wearing something new to honor him. ESPN NBA reporter Dave McMenamin shared a photo of James wearing a bracelet that had the numbers 8 and 24. Bryant wore both of those numbers during his 20 years with the Lakers.
The bracelet LeBron wore to Lakers practice Monday. pic.twitter.com/NNCGfxLVK8
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 3, 2020
When the crash happened, the Lakers postponed their game the following Tuesday. They were back in action this past Friday and there was a special ceremony to honor the victims of the helicopter crash. James spoke to the crowd before the game and gave an emotional speech.
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“I look at this as a celebration tonight,” James said via CBS Sports. “This is a celebration of the 20 years of the blood, the sweat, the tears, the broken down body…the determination to be as great as he could be. Tonight we celebrate the kid that came here at 18 years of age, retired at 38 and became probably the best dad that we’ve seen over the last three years. Tonight is a celebration.
“Kobe is a brother to me,” James continued. “From the time I was in high school watching him from afar, to getting in this league at 18 and watching him up close, all the battles that we had throughout my career, the one thing that we always shared was that determination to just want to win, to just want to be great. The fact that I’m here now means so much to me. I want to continue, along with my teammates, his legacy. Not only for this year, but for as long as we can play this game of basketball that we love, because that’s what Kobe Bryant would want. So in the words of Kobe Bryant, ‘Mamba out.’ But in the words of us, not forgotten. Live on, brother.”
Bryant played for the Lakers from 1996-2016. He led the team to five NBA championships, he was named to the All-Star team 18 times and he was selected to the All-NBA First Team 11 times. The Philadelphia native was also named MVP in 2008 and was the All-Star MVP four times.
