Dozens of basketball fans celebrate Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles one year after his death

Posted today at 04:09, updated at 04:20

A few dozen basketball fans followed one another, Tuesday, January 26, around the Staples Center, the Lakers room in Los Angeles, to pray in memory of the idol Kobe Bryant, one year to the day after his death in a helicopter crash.

A fan carrying balloons stops to pay tribute to Kobe Bryant near the Staples Center on January 26, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.

Covid-19 pandemic requires, no rally was organized for this anniversary. Neither the city nor the club “Angeleno” had planned a celebration. This did not prevent about forty people from coming to deposit flowers and other souvenir objects bearing the image of their favorite club on an improvised memorial not far from the enclosure where Bryant forged his legend by dint of exploits and of titles gleaned, five in twenty years.

In front of a makeshift memorial outside the convention center next to Staples Center in Los Angeles.

“It’s been a year, and I believe that for many, life is not the same. A part of the hearts of everyone in Los Angeles broke a year ago, nothing will ever be the same ”, testified to Agence France-Presse Anoush Mirakyan, supporter of the purple and gold team.

Read the obituary: With the death of Kobe Bryant, basketball loses one of the greatest players in its history

On a misty morning on Sunday January 26, 2020, Bryant, 41, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others were killed when the helicopter carrying them crashed into a hill in North Calabasas. west of LA

Fans gather in front of a mural of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna painted on the wall of the Hardcore Fitness Bootcamp in downtown Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, California.

On Tuesday, Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, posted a letter from one of Gianna’s best friends, in which the teenager told her: “You’ve probably heard that, but if I ever become a mom, I hope my daughter will be just like yours. “

A fan and her dog near the Staples Center.

To which Vanessa Bryant added: “I miss my little girl and Kob-Kob so much too. I will never understand why, how this tragedy could have happened to human beings so beautiful, so kind and so wonderful. It still doesn’t seem real. “

Tina Garcia, near the Staples Center.

Several personalities have expressed, as a year ago, their sorrow on this fatal day for them, such as the former teammate of Bryant at the Lakers Pau Gasol. “I miss you, my brother … not a day goes by that you are not present in what I do”, at tweeted the Spanish.

Another legendary player, “Magic” Johnson broadcast a photo of him alongside Bryant, with this caption: “Kobe will always be my Lakers brother for life. “

Along a wall in downtown Los Angeles, January 26, 2021.

As for the Californian franchise with 17 league titles, it also posted a photo black and white of Bryant giving his daughter a loving kiss, accompanied by the words “The family is eternal”.

Read also NBA: farewell to Kobe Bryant, “icon of a sport, a club and a city”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here