Sports

Kobe Bryant Statue Appears to Be Riddled With Spelling Errors, Corrections Made (UPDATE)

Several names were misspelled in the replica box score from Kobe's 81-point game between the Lakers and Raptors, including José Calderón's name.

Statue of Kobe Bryant in Lakers uniform outside, with fans gathered around its base
Aaronp / GC Images

UPDATED 4/9, 9:45 p.m. ET: The Kobe Bryant statue outside of Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles has officially been fixed.

As reported by TMZ, the statue—which was unveiled in February and featured misspellings of the names of José Calderón and Von Wafer, among other errors—was corrected.

The Lakers are planning to erect two more Kobe statues outside the arena at a later date.

See original story below.

Just a month after the Los Angeles Lakers honored Kobe Bryant with a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena, fans of the team have already noticed several erros listed in the etched marble base of the statue.

As pointed out by German basketball journalist André Voigt, who shared a tweet on Monday highlighting the aforementioned errors, José Calderón's and Von Wafer's names are misspelled in the replica box score from Kobe's 81-point game between the Lakers and Raptors in 2006.

Additionally, the word decision was spelled as “decicion," when listing which players did not play that game due to a coach's decision.

According to ESPN, the Lakers have been made aware of the issues, and are already working on fixing the misspellings.

"We have been aware of this for a few weeks and are already working to get it corrected soon," a Lakers spokesperson said in a statement.

The news arrives a month after the Lakers unveiled the 4,000-pound, 19-foot bronze statue outside their arena to celebrate the life of Kobe, who traggically lost his life in a helicopter accident back in January 2020.

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