Should Kobe Bryant be the new face of the NBA?
After his tragic death in a helicopter crash last month, many fans are looking for a fitting way to pay tribute to the basketball legend. Some fans, including those here on campus, would like to see Kobe become the new face of the NBA. What would that mean? It would involve changing the NBA’s logo to include a silhouette of Kobe Bryant. The current silhouette in the logo is of Hall of Famer Jerry West. Fans have created an online petition to change that. The petition currently has over three million signatures.
Many Eastside students support the proposal. We surveyed 105 students, and 86% said that they support the creation of a new logo featuring Kobe Bryant.
Amaryond Ausby support the proposal. “Growing up, Kobe has inspired me and made me the baller I am today,” he says. “I would love to see that change.”
Kobe Bryant was born August 13, 1978, in Philadelphia. His father, Joe Bryant, actually played in the NBA as well. He taught Kobe to play basketball beginning at the age of three. Then, when Kobe turned six, his father retired from the NBA and moved the family to Italy, where he continued to play professional basketball.
While in Italy, Kobe became fluent in Italian. Even later in his life, Kobe said that Italy was one of his favorite places to live.
When he was twelve years old, Kobe decided to give up basketball. He’d played against some talented kids in a camp, and he felt embarrassed because he couldn’t keep up with them and hadn’t scored a single point. He took up soccer instead. It wasn’t until Kobe heard that Michael Jordan had also struggled with basketball as a teenager that Kobe decided not to give up on basketball. Kobe’s favorite team was the Lakers.
Kobe entered the NBA directly out of high school and played for twenty seasons, during which he scored 33,643 points throughout his whole career. For all twenty of those years, Kobe Bryant was a Los Angeles Laker. In the last game of his life, he scored 60 points.
In November 1999, Kobe met Vanessa Laine. She was seventeen at the time. Six months later, they go engaged. At the time of his death, they’d been married for nineteen years and had four children: Gianna, Natalia, Bianka, and Capri. Gianna was also in the helicopter when it crashed.
Seven other people were in the helicopter as well. It crashed in Calabasas, California, on January 26. The helicopter was on its way to Kobe Bryant’s basketball camp when the helicopter malfunctioned.
If you’d like to sign the petition, you can do so by clicking here.
