LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The Los Angeles Lakers will retire both of Kobe Bryant’s jersey numbers in a lavish halftime ceremony Monday when the Lakers host the defending champion Golden State Warriors at Staples Center arena.
“As a kid growing up in Italy, I always dreamed of my jersey hanging in the Lakers’ rafters, but I certainly never imagined two of them,” Bryant said. “The Lakers have bestowed a huge honor on me and I’m grateful for the fans’ enthusiasm around this game.”
The Lakers are pulling out all the stops in honoring one of the club’s greats.
They will raise both of the numbers Bryant wore while with the team – eight and 24 – in his two-decade career, all of which was spent with the Lakers.
Bryant, who retired in 2016, scored 33,643 points, the third-most in NBA history behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.
