Robert Horry says that the Kobe Bryant statue, which is set to be unveiled on August 8, 2024, by the Los Angeles Lakers, should be like ‘Two-Face,’ to encapsulate the two different stages of Bryant’s iconic career.
“You’ll have young Kobe on one side and the older Kobe on the other side,” Horry said. 8/24. It’s fitting. Since he has two jerseys retired, it will almost have to be like Two-Face. You have to think about the young and hungry Kobe as well as the wise and mature Kobe.”
Kobe is the only player in NBA history to have two numbers — 8 and 24 — retired by one team. He wore No. 8 from when he entered the league to 2005-06 and then wore No. 24 for the rest of his career, which ended in 2015-16.
As the 53-year-old Horry says, you can divide his career and who he was on the court into two parts based on those numbers. It would be quite interesting if the Lakers went with this unique approach for the statue.
Kobe Bryant Did Reveal The Number He’d Want On His Statue
Prior to his tragic passing in 2020, Kobe had actually been asked about what number he’d want his statue to have. He went back and forth with it in his mind, but Bryant ultimately chose No. 24, as it was more challenging.
“24 was more challenging,” Bryant started. “And I tend to gravitate to things that are harder to do. And physically for me, it was really really to get up night in and night out, man. It’s a grind. You know, taking on the Boston Celtics, having a bone fragment in my foot during that series, and having a broken finger, and muscling through that half back of the career, some of the toughest stretches of basketball ever, so I guess if you force me to pick, I’d probably go with 24 because of that.”
The second half of his career certainly was a lot more challenging, and he battled through a lot of adversity. Considering this was his wish, I’d think the Lakers would settle on that. Kobe will become the seventh Laker icon to have a statue outside the arena next year, joining Elgin Baylor, Chick Hearn, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Jerry West.
Kobe Bryant’s Incredible Lakers Career
With the Lakers having had so many iconic players, it is very difficult to clearly point to one as their greatest player, but Bryant does have an argument for it. He spent all 20 seasons of his NBA career with the franchise, winning 5 titles, 2 Finals MVPs, an MVP, and we can go on and on when talking about all his accolades.
He finished his career with excellent averages of 25.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. Bryant is by far the franchise’s all-time leading scorer with 33,643 points and leads the way in steals with 1,944 while also ranking second in assists with 6,306. Team owner Jeanie Buss believes Kobe is the greatest Laker ever, and we tend to agree.
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