Lakers announce Kobe Bryant statue will be unveiled on February 8 of next year… with the 2/8/24 date honoring both the late-NBA star and his daughter Gianna

The Los Angeles Lakers plan to unveil a statue of NBA Hall-of-Famer and legend Kobe Bryant outside the Crypto.com Arena on February 8 of next year.

A statue honoring the late Bryant has been in the works for a while now, but a date hadn’t been made public until this morning.

That date serves to honor not only Bryant and the two numbers he wore in his career – 8 and 24 – but it will also memorialize Kobe’s daughter Gianna, who wore No. 2 when she played.

In a video message to Lakers fans, Kobe’s widow – Vanessa Bryant – revealed the plans on the organization’s behalf.

‘I am so honored, that right in the center of Los Angeles, in front of the place known as “The House that Kobe Built”, we are going to unveil a statue so that his legacy can be celebrated forever,’ she said.

The Lakers plan to unveil a statue of Kobe Bryant on February 8 of next year at their arena

That date holds significance as 2/8/24 will honor Kobe’s two playing numbers, as well as the jersey No. 2 that Bryant’s daughter, Gianna, wore while she played before their deaths

Both Kobe and Gianna passed away in a January 2020 helicopter crash north of Los Angeles

Lakers owner Jeanie Buss previously revealed plans to erect a statue for Bryant after he, his 13-year-old daughter, Gigi, six friends and a pilot died in a helicopter crash in January of 2020.

Fans have grown impatient for a memorial in Bryant’s honor, although many have speculated that the team would wait until 2024 to unveil the statue.

‘Why do we still not have a Kobe statue outside Staples Center?’ popular Lakers-centric Twitter user, @LakeShowYo, asked on August 5.

The question was met with several similar responses: ‘They’re waiting til 2024.’

There already was one Kobe/Gigi statue placed at the site of the crash in Calabasas, California, but there were no plans to keep the piece there permanently.

The statue, a 150-pound bronze sculpture, was created by Southern California artist Dan Medina and depicted Bryant in his Lakers uniform with his arm around Gigi, herself a budding basketball player at the time of the crash.

People gather around a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant near Staples Center in 2020

Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, is involved with the plans, but an artist has not yet been selected 

There already was one Kobe/Gigi statue placed at the site of the crash in Calabasas (pictured) 

The base has the inscription ‘heroes come and go but legends are forever,’ along with the names of the other crash victims — Christina Mauser; Payton and Sarah Chester; John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli; and pilot Ara Zobayan.

Fans took photos of the statue along with leaving flowers and other memorials at the crash site. The statue is a smaller version of a life-size sculpture he is working on that he hopes can find a location in downtown Los Angeles.

Medina also said he hopes the smaller version could eventually end up at the crash site.

‘I think we did it the right way. I didn’t break any laws. There was no trash left behind,’ he told The Associated Press in 2022. ‘I hope by showing that something we did spontaneous and the right way can lead to something further.’