The new Kobe Bryant statue outside Crypto.com Arena has a few spelling errors carved into it. NBCLA’s Alex Rozier reports on March 11, 2024.
One month after a celebratory unveiling for the Kobe Bryant statue outside of Crypto.com Arena, fans started to notice a few spelling errors on the statue – some more obvious than others.
The 19-feet bronze statue, which was inspired by Kobe’s pose after he scored 81 points in a game against Toronto in 2006, has the official scorer’s report from that night on the side.
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But the list misspelled at least two players’ names: Instead of José Calderón, a former Toronto guard, his name was written as “Jose Calderson.” Also former Laker Vakeaton Quamar Von Wafer’s name was misspelled as “Vom Wafer.”
Perhaps more puzzling of them all: the word “decision” was erroneously written as “decicion.”
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“Something like that – I just wouldn’t expect it,” Laker fan Holden Moser said. “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.”
While some fans suspected the scorecard on the day had errors that may have led to misspellings on the statue, it appears the scorer’s report didn’t have errors.
In 2020, Goldin Auctions auctioned off the scorer’s report signed by Kobe, and it doesn’t have any of the three misspellings.
“Well, if it’s a mistake, then that’s gotta go,” another Laker fan Miguel Custodio said. “Because we know Kobe and his reputation as a perfectionist as somebody who wants to do it right, why would you have that?”
Now the question is what are the Lakers going to do about it?
“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.
