LA Lakers will on Friday give away about 20,000 free Kobe Bryant tribute shirts at the Staples Centre, as they honour the NBA legend who passed away on Sunday, alongside his daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash.
The free Kobe Bryant tribute shirts saw his jersey numbers #8 and #24 added to the court design as well as his initials on the baseline. The players will wear a jersey patch with the same design.
According to the report by TMZ, everyone who attends the Lakers game Friday night will get a free Kobe Bryant tribute shirts, courtesy of the team, 20,000 in total.
The hard-working people at Staples Center have draped a Kobe shirt on every single seat half of the arena will get Kobe #8 shirts. The other half will get #24 shirts.
It’s just one part of the Kobe Bryant tributes at Staples on Friday the first game for the Lakers since Kobe passed away on Sunday.
There will be a moment of silence, visual tributes to Kobe around the arena and we’re told some players are considering addressing the crowd but nothing is set in stone yet.
Tickets for Friday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers are already rising in value — with the cheapest tickets just to get in the building hovering around $800 on the secondary ticket market.
A massive turnout both inside and outside Staples Center will be expected where Kobe played for nearly all of his 20 years with the Lakers (the Lakers previously played at The Forum).