Lakers To Wear "Black Mamba" Uniforms For Kobe Bryant Statue Unveiling

The Lakers have announced that they will wear their "Black Mamba" uniform variant for their February 8 game against Denver as part of a special night honoring the late Kobe Bryant. The team is due to unveil a statue of the career Laker outside Crypto.com Arena before they face the reigning NBA champions. That game will then be played with the team wearing the special uniforms that Bryant himself designed. It will be the first time that the team has worn the uniform variant since doing so during the 2020 season following Kobe's death.

The Black Mamba variant is a black and gold uniform featuring a subtle snakeskin pattern. Kobe helped design the variant in 2017, drawing inspiration from his 1996/97 rookie uniform. "LA 24" is stitched onto the belt, and the shorts include Kobe's numbers - 8 and 24. The team first wore the variant in 2018.

Footage Of Kobe Bryant Taking Brandy To His Prom Emerges On Twitter

Meanwhile, An X account that shares archival footage recently shared a video of a news report about Kobe Bryant taking Brandy to his high school prom. The event happened in 1996, just months before Bryant would be drafted into the NBA. However, at the time, many of his classmates weren't overly thrilled with the amount of attention Kobe was receiving. "It's not Kobe Bryant's prom, it's Lower Merion's prom," one attendee noted. "Yes, this is Kobe Bryant's prom. But it's also everyone's prom. This is not the Kobe Bryant prom. It's the prom of the class of 1996," added another.

Kobe, who was dating Brandy at the time, would arrive three hours after the prom began and was flanked by security. Despite this, a reporter was still able to ask Brandy how she felt about Kobe. As a result, the singer called the future NBA Hall of Famer "very cute". However, the pair would quickly break up, with Brandy going on to date her "first love", Boyz II Men lead singer Wayne Morris.

[via]