Kobe Bryant’s hand and foot prints were unveiled by his family on Wednesday at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
The late Los Angeles Lakers star is the first NBA player to be immortalized on the Los Angeles monument.
Kobe actually left his footprints in the wet cement in 2011, and they’ve been preserved until now. The NBA star’s name, #24 and the date 2/19/11 are written in the concrete block.
At Wednesday’s ceremony, Vanessa Bryant and her daughters lifted a blanket over the handprints as reporters and photographers took photos.
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Vanessa and Kobe’s youngest daughters placed their little feet in their father’s footprints, making the audience laugh. The Bryant family was joined by Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and Lakers legend Byron Scott.
Their eldest daughter, Natalia, said she was honored to attend the ceremony and paid tribute to her father.
“Being his daughter has been one of the greatest joys of my life,” she said.
Natalia told the crowd that she loves movies, especially Star Wars, Harry Pottermarvel movies and The Goonies.
“The reason behind it is that I watched all those movies with my dad and every one of those memories that I will never forget,” she shared. “He’s the reason I’m studying film in college, and he’s the reason film inspired me to create memories like ours, for other people to bring even more dads together. and girls like us.”
Kobe also loved the movies and made history in 2018 as the first NBA player to win an Oscar. He wrote, produced and narrated director Glen Keane’s animated short Dear basketballand shared the award with the filmmaker.
