The main street outside of the Los Angeles Staples Center will be renamed after Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles City Council announced on Monday (Aug. 24). The portion of Figueroa that will be changed runs between Olympic and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards.
“So when we drive down this stretch, we will forever be able to look up to Kobe Bryant Boulevard and feel him smiling down on us and the ever-lasting impact his life has had and will continue to have for generations to come,” L.A. City Councilman Curren Price said.
“Kobe’s legacy is bigger than basketball,” tweeted L.A. City Council president Herb J. Wesson Jr. “#KobeBryantBlvd will be a reminder to everyone, young and old who drive down it, there is no obstacle too big and that with the #Mambamentality, anything is possible.”
Figueroa St. will soon be Kobe Bryant Blvd. between Olympic & MLK.
Kobe’s legacy is bigger than basketball. #KobeBryantBlvd will be a reminder to everyone, young and old who drive down it, there is no obstacle too big and that with the #Mambamentality , anything is possible. pic.twitter.com/gvekIFOU5u
— Herb J. Wesson, Jr. (@HerbJWesson) August 24, 2020
The street placement is perfect being that Staples Center is known as the house that Bryant “built.” The venue opened in 1999, three years after Bryant was drafted to the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant started and ended his career with the Lakers playing his final game in 2016.
The father of four passed away in a plane crash in January alongside his 13-year-old daughter, Giana, and seven others. Loved ones and fans alike celebrated what would have been his 42nd birthday on Sunday (Aug. 23). The NBA legend’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, shared a heartbreaking tribute to her late husband that read in part: “I’m mad I didn’t go first. I always wanted to go first so that I selfishly didn’t have to feel this heartache. You were supposed to miss me.”
Read her full post below.
Vanessa Bryant’s birthday tribute to Kobe Bryant 😢 pic.twitter.com/7fSn3obHk2
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 23, 2020