Kobe Bryant memorial riddled with spelling errors to be repaired after more than a month of ridicule from fans

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The Los Angeles Lakers have finally announced that they will correct errors on the Kobe Bryant "Black Mamba" memorial statue outside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, the team announced.

The 19-foot bronze statue commemorates Bryant's 2006 performance against the Toronto Raptors during which he scored 81 points, the second-most points scored by an individual in an NBA game. Wilt Chamberlain scored the most, 100 points in 1962.

The memorial to Bryant includes the box score from his amazing game carved into the marble base. Unfortunately, the box score contains multiple spelling errors.

The errors included the misspelling of two players' names, Von Wafer and Jose Calderon. Wafer played for the Lakers at the time while Calderon played for the Raptors. Calderon's last name was misspelled as "Calderson," while Wafer's first name was labeled "Vom."

Perhaps most egregious, the third error was a misspelling of the word decision, which was written as "Decicion." What's worse is that the correct spelling of the word is quite literally directly above it. This error appeared to have happened twice on the statue.

“We have been aware of this for a few weeks and are already working to get it corrected soon,” the Lakers said in a statement, according to the NBA. The team also noted they would correct other minor formatting mistakes made in relation to Bryant's accomplishments.

Kobe Bryant statue at Crypto \u2014 there are multiple spelling errors in the box sheet portion of the statue.\n-Jose "Calderson"\n-"Vom" Wafer\n-"Decicion" twice\nPhotos are real. Hard to imagine how this could happen. Statue has been up since 2/8/24. Called Lakers, no word back yet.
— (@)

The statue was erected on February 8, 2024, which means that more than a month had passed before the NBA and the Lakers announced that the corrections were going to be made.

Fans have ridiculed the statue online, but with that ridicule has come disappointment.

"Something like that – I just wouldn’t expect it," Lakers fan Holden Moser told NBC Los Angeles. "Like a statue of obviously a great player, you think you would want to put in as much work and make sure you don’t make any mistakes at all on it," he added.

"Well, if it’s a mistake, then that’s gotta go,” fan Miguel Custodio declared. "We know Kobe and his reputation as a perfectionist as somebody who wants to do it right, why would you have that?"

The same fan theorized that perhaps there were errors on the original scorecard that acted as the source material, however the local NBC affiliate debunked that conspiracy by investigating the original document.

Kobe Bryant\u2019s statue outside of Crypto Arena has THREE typos in the box score \ud83d\ude33\n\n\u25aa\ufe0fJose Calderon - \u2018Jose Calderson\u2019 \n\u25aa\ufe0fVon Wafer - \u2018Vom Wafer\u2019 \n\u25aa\ufe0fCoach\u2019s Decision - \u2018Decicion\u2019
— (@)

The statue was designed by Julie Rotblatt Amrany, a 65-year-old sculptor who has worked with her husband Omri Amrany on many famous sports statues, including one of Michael Jordan in Chicago, Illinois. The couple's fine art studio has also been commissioned to create statues of other world-renowned athletes like David Beckham and Shaquille O'Neal.

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Vanessa Bryant, the widow of late NBA star Kobe Bryant, used social media to hit back against LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Tuesday, after the sheriff called on Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James to "match" and "double" the reward being offered for information on the suspect who ambushed two deputies in Compton over the weekend.

What are the details?

Villanueva announced this week that a $175,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the suspect who was seen on surveillance footage shooting the deputies as they sat in their patrol car. Both were hospitalized in critical condition, and are expected to survive.

During an interview with KABC-AM following the attack, the sheriff declared, "This challenge is to LeBron James: I want you to match that and double that reward."

"I know you care about law enforcement," the sheriff continued. "You expressed a very interesting statement about your perspective on race relations and on officer-involved shootings and the impact that it has on the African American community, and I appreciate that. But likewise, we need to appreciate that respect for life goes across all professions."

Villanueva added, "Let's see what he does. I'll be very curious to see what his response is, if any."

James has been an outspoken critic of law enforcement in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis in late May after an officer was seen on video kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than 8 minutes.

The Lakers star player told reporters last month, "We are scared as black people in America. Black men, black women, black kids. We are, we are terrified."

James has yet to respond to Villanueva, but Vanessa Bryant did.

Fox News reported that "In a series of posts on her Instagram Story, Bryant spotlighted screenshots of tweets and articles blasting Villanueva and calling out his department over the leak of graphic photos following the tragic helicopter crash that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant, their young daughter Gianna, and seven others in January."

KCAL-TV noted, "Bryant is suing the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department after several deputies were found to be sharing graphic photos of the Jan. 26 helicopter crash that killed her husband, their 13-year-old daughter, Gigi, and seven others. Villanueva confirmed in March that eight deputies were involved in sharing the photos."

The outlet reported:

Bryant weighed in on the challenge in her Instagram Stories, reposting a tweet that cast doubt on the challenge to James and how the sheriff was unable to "hold his deputies accountable for photographing dead children." Another Story reposted another tweet asking how Villanueva can ask athletes, elected officials and civic leaders to trust the criminal justice system when "His sheriff's dept. couldn't be trusted to secure Kobe Bryant's helicopter crash scene, his deputies took and shared graphic photos of the crash victims."

Bryant also shared a post showing Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's earlier statement about the deputies that were ambushed. "Not all deputies are bad apples," the mayor said. "Prayers for the 2 deputies that were shot."

Anything else?

CNN's Erin Burnett tweeted Tuesday night that Villanueva said the "reward for info in Compton deputy shooting attack now 275K, an increase of 100k thanks to donations from community."

.@LACoSheriff says reward for info in Compton deputy shooting attack now 275K, an increase of 100k thanks to donations from community
— Erin Burnett (@Erin Burnett)1600213642.0

According to the Sheriff's department, the suspect is described as a black male between 28 and 30 years old. He was wearing dark clothes.