On the side of a gym in downtown Los Angeles, two figures with angelic wings — Kobe Bryant, who won five N.B.A. titles with the Lakers, and his daughter Gianna — are depicted together in the clouds. Near one feather, the words “Do not touch this mural” are sprayed in a faded white script.
No one has. The mural’s endurance is a testament to the legacy of Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash five years ago alongside Gianna and seven other people. There are more than 600 murals honoring Bryant around the world, according to one crowdsourced tally, a majority of them in Southern California.
As she waited for an Uber near the heavenly mural one afternoon, Keeley Black, of Hollywood, rattled off locations of other Bryant murals she had encountered. One is near Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Another is in the Fairfax shopping district.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of them be messed with either,” she said. “I think people really respect these murals.”
Before wildfires ravaged Pacific Palisades and Altadena this month, before the pandemic and Hollywood strikes brought film production to a screeching halt, it was Bryant’s death that broke Los Angeles’s collective heart.
Artists behind some of the murals say that they illustrate how Bryant captivated everyday people with both his “Mamba Mentality” work ethic, his slashing drives to the basket and fadeaway jump shot.
“Painting a big mural feels amazing when you’re done — you’re painting something bigger than yourself, quite literally,” said Kay Luz, an artist whose large canvas was a pizza shop on the Venice Beach boardwalk. She depicted Kobe, 41, and Gianna, 13, in their basketball jerseys on a purple backsplash, a nod to the Lakers’ color scheme. “I feel like artists are giving the world that gift of, ‘Hey, this person meant a lot to me.’”
Bryant, who entered the N.B.A. in 1996 and spent his entire 20-season career with the Lakers, was selected to 18 All-Star games, won two Olympic gold medals and developed a signature shoe with Nike. He was idolized by younger athletes and helped market the N.B.A. to international audiences.
“I see it with Kobe, there’s always a few athletes that cross over into almost superhero world,” said Jonas Never, an artist who has worked on projects for some of Los Angeles’s professional sports teams.
During the 2015-16 N.B.A. season, Bryant’s final as a pro, Never found a wall at a parking lot a few blocks away from what was then known as Staples Center, where the Lakers played home games. Without permission from the property owner, he started a mural to commemorate Bryant’s career. The final product resembles a photo of Bryant tugging his gold jersey in celebration during a playoff game, along with a Lakers logo and the words “Los Angeles Culture.”
Within hours of Bryant’s death in 2020, that alleyway transformed into a site of mourning. Swarms of grievers descended for weeks, leaving flowers and candles near Never’s mural. The site is still visited by tourists.
“I think the proximity mixed with the fact that it wasn’t chasing what happened and it was already there really gave it some credibility.” Never said. “L.A. is such a big spread-out city, and seeing everyone come together over Kobe at that mural was really awesome.”
Other murals were inspired by Bryant’s death. Louie Palsino, who painted the angel mural on the gym and goes by Sloe Motions on social media, walked around downtown searching for a wall to paint on the overcast January morning that Bryant died. The gym owner was initially hesitant but ultimately gave Palsino permission. He then spent about two weeks on a 20-foot ladder creating the depiction of Bryant and his daughter.
“I just wanted biblical stuff,” Palsino said, “something where you would open up a book one day and see angels and Kobe would be there.”
About three years later, the gym’s landlord informed the owner that the mural needed to be removed. The news generated public support to keep it intact, including an online petition with over 90,000 signatures that was shared by Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow and Gianna’s mother.
The video game publisher 2K, which creates the popular NBA 2K basketball franchise, gave an undisclosed donation to keep the mural up for at least a year, but the artwork’s future is unclear. Vanessa Bryant and 2K declined to comment.
Palsino estimated that he has made at least 40 murals of Bryant, recently finishing one in Pasadena.
“It’s just human instinct,” Palsino said. “What we love and what we represent, we want to put it out there on our walls.”
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