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'Mamba Day': Los Angeles celebrates Kobe Bryant on 8/24 with new mural, light show

alexandra e. petri
·3 min read
10
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 24: Los Angeles-based illustrator Nikkolas Smith, shown, and muralist Odeith, not shown, created a mural honoring the late Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant is unveiled at the headquarters of West Coast Trial Lawyers in downtown on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. The unveiling will be on ``Mamba Day,'' which is an annual day of commemoration for Bryant held on 8/24, representing the numbers he wore during his Laker career. Muralist Odeith and Los Angeles-based illustrator Nikkolas Smith created the artwork, which measures 125 feet by 32 feet. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Illustrator Nikkolas Smith looks at a mural he created along with muralist Odeith honoring the late Lakers great Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, in downtown Los Angeles on "Mamba Day.'' (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles will celebrate Mamba Day with a sprawling mural of the late Kobe Bryant in downtown L.A. and a light tribute to the Lakers legend at the Santa Monica Pier on Wednesday.

The annual Kobe Bryant Day celebration will include the unveiling of a giant outdoor mural at the West Coast Trial Lawyers' offices at 1147 S. Hope St. in downtown Los Angeles at 10 a.m. Just in time for sunset, the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier will illuminate at 7:29 p.m. with the numbers 8 and 24, the jersey numbers Bryant wore during his 20 years with the Lakers, as well as with the Lakers' purple and gold colors and other designs.

According to City News Service, Odeith, a visual artist, and Nikkolas Smith, an L.A.-based illustrator, designed the mural, which measures 125 feet by 32 feet and is the largest portrait of Bryant in the city.

A crowd gathers for unveiling of a mural honoring Kobe Bryant
A crowd gathers for the unveiling of a mural honoring the late Lakers great Kobe Bryant in downtown Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The mural, which takes up the building's entire side wall, features a closeup of Bryant in black and white. To his left is a mamba snake and to his right is a group of children, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, who died with her dad in a Jan. 26, 2020, helicopter crash along with seven others, playing basketball atop a giant rendering of "Epoca," the book series Bryant created.

"Kobe Bryant created stories for children that featured Black and brown characters, so he inspired kids in ways that went even beyond what he did on the basketball court," Smith told City News Service.

City News Service also reported that the Ferris wheel will have a special display with Bryant's jersey numbers from sunset to midnight

The city of Los Angeles declared 8/24 — a nod to the two numbers Bryant wore with the Lakers — Kobe Bryant Day in 2016, shortly after his final season.

The observance comes one day after what would have been Bryant’s 44th birthday on Aug. 23. The Lakers posted photos on Twitter of newborns at UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital who share a birthday with Bryant and were swaddled in Lakers blankets, with No. 8 beanie hats and certificates to say that they’ve “already got a little bit of the Mamba Mentality in them."

Mamba Day also comes as Vanessa Bryant, Kobe Bryant's wife, is in court after a two-year legal battle in which she sued Los Angeles County over graphic images from the crash that killed her husband and their daughter. Chris Chester, whose wife, Sarah, and 13-year-old daughter, Payton, were also killed in the crash, joined Bryant in the lawsuit.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.