Kobe Bryant’s death earlier this year has loomed large over the Los Angeles Lakers — not to mention the entire NBA — and Anthony Davis shared Thursday night how the team honors the icon’s memory every game.
Following the Lakers’ 110-100 victory over the Houston Rockets in Game 4 of the teams’ Western Conference semifinal series, Davis revealed the nature of a routine in-game tribute to Bryant, all while wearing a fantastic Kobe G.O.A.T. shirt.
“I for sure think about him all the time on and off the floor, but I just thought this was a dope shirt,” Davis said after a dog amusingly disrupted his postgame presser.
“Not just me, but the entire team thinks about him the entire time. We say ‘Mamba on 3’ after every timeout and every huddle knowing that he’s with us. Knowing that we’re not only playing for the organization but playing for him.”
The Lakers have made sure that Bryant remains in the hearts and minds of NBA fans throughout the restart in the bubble at the Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Fla. Beginning with the Lakers’ opening game, LeBron James has sported a No. 24 finger sleeve on his left hand.
What’s more, James mentioned following a Game 3 win that he hopes that Bryant and his family are “proud” of what the Lakers are accomplishing in the postseason.
There also have been an abundance of Bryant remembrances across the NBA in the bubble, including how the Lakers wore their Black Mamba City Edition alternate jerseys on Aug. 24.
Bryant perished along with daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., on Jan. 26, and the NBA world has been in mourning ever since.
The Lakers now sit with a 3-1 lead and will attempt to put a Kobe-like dagger in the Rockets and close out the series with a win in Game 5 on Saturday night.
All that said, Davis’ divulging of the Lakers’ huddle routine demonstrates more than anything that while Bryant may be gone, he certainly is not forgotten.
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