The Los Angeles Lakers said Monday that spelling errors on a Kobe Bryant statue, unveiled last month outside the team’s arena, will be corrected.
The errors were pointed out and amplified by German journalist André Voigt, who published his finds on social media platform X on Sunday. They include spelling Toronto guard José Calderón as “Jose Calderson,” and spelling former Laker Von Wafer as “Vom Wafer,” according to NBC Los Angeles.
The word decision is set in bronze as “decicion,” the station said.
The statue’s pose was inspired by the late player’s index-finger-in-the-air postgame response to his epic 81-point game in the Lakers’ 122-104 win against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006.
It was the league’s second-highest game-points total for a single player. Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points in the then-Philadelphia Warriors’ 169-147 win against the New York Knicks in 1962 remains the high mark.
The 19-foot statue of Bryant, who spent his entire career with the Lakers, features a recreation of the Toronto game’s scorecard, where Calderón and Wafer’s names, as well as “decision,” are spelled correctly, NBC Los Angeles said.
“We have been aware of this for a few weeks and are already working to get it corrected soon,” a Lakers spokesperson said in a statement Monday.
The bronze of Bryant in his earlier No. 8 jersey was unveiled on Feb. 8 at Star Plaza outside Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.
Widow Vanessa Bryant said at the event that it would be the first of three statues commissioned to immortalize the five-time NBA championship winner.
Read the full article here
