LA Lakers’ iconic Staples Center was scheduled for a ceremony on Monday to celebrate the lives of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his teenage daughter Gianna.
Bryant, Gianna and seven others died on January 26 when the helicopter they were travelling on crashed into the side of a mountain in Calabasas.
Bryant played for the Lakers for 20 seasons, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time, while Gianna was a promising young basketball talent who had aspirations to play for the University of Connecticut.
More than 88,000 people applied for tickets to the memorial service in the first five hours, with a limited number available to the general public. The rest were reserved for friends, family and members of the NBA community.
A numbers of high-profile names will be at the service, and Bryant’s wife and Gianna’s mother Vanessa shared a tribute for her daughter on Instagram ahead of the event after women’s football star Sydney Leroux had a number 2 tattooed on her arm.
(LLB)