In a sea of tributes, ESPN will honor the legend with a special issue titled,“Kobe Bryant: An Extraordinary Life.” The release features 96-pages that will highlight photos from his career and writings from ESPN personalities who had the pleasure of covering Kobe’s career.
In a statement to the Sports Business Journal, Alison Overholt, ESPN’s vice president of storytelling and special projects stated, “We specifically limited this to be a test case to do the work, see how the process goes and see if this makes sense.”
She continued, “We’ll evaluate when and how often it makes sense to do something like this.”
Kobe Bryant and his daughter both passed in a tragic helicopter crash Sunday, January 26, 2020, along with seven other individuals.
To honor the retired NBA player, people all over the world are paying tribute with haircuts, murals, songs, and more.
Most recently, Friday, Jan 31st, the Lakers also honored Kobe with an emotional tribute, before the team played the Portland Trailblazers. That game was the second most watched game in ESPN’s history, according to ESPN.
NBA greats such as Dwayne Wade, Shaq, and LeBon James have publicly expressed their great loss.
Shaq stated,
“We up here, we work a lot, and I think a lot of times we take stuff for granted. Like, I don’t talk to you guys as much as I need to. The fact that we’re not gonna be able to joke during his Hall of Fame ceremony. We’re not gonna be able to say, ‘Ha, I got five and you got four.’ The fact that we we’re not gonna be able to say, ‘If we could have stayed together we would’ve got 10.’ Those are the things you can’t get back.”
Sports Illustrated also announced they will honor Kobe Bryant with a 100-page special edition that will drop Friday, Feb 7th.
