City Council Proposal Would Rename Street Near Staples Center After Kobe Bryant
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – A stretch of road running alongside Staples Center could soon bear the name of one of the greatest Los Angeles Lakers ever.
On what is being celebrated as Kobe Bryant Day, L.A. City Councilmembers Curren Price and Herb Wesson Monday announced they are introducing a motion to rename a stretch of Figueroa Street in downtown L.A. to Kobe Bryant Boulevard.
An approximately 3-mile stretch of Figueroa would be renamed to Kobe Bryant Boulevard between Olympic Boulevard near Staples Center and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Exposition Park, under the proposal.
"This is a gift to the City of Los Angeles and to all the Kobe Bryant fans around the world," Price said in a statement. "LA streets will rise in honor of the 'King of LA.'"
Staples Center is often given the moniker the "House that Kobe built" because it opened in 1999, just a few years into Bryant's career.
Bryant is being honored Monday in Los Angeles and Orange counties, just one day after what would have been his 42nd birthday. In 2016, the L.A. City Council passed a resolution declaring Aug. 24 as Kobe Bryant Day in perpetuity, on the date of the jersey numbers he wore with the team.
When the Lakers face the Portland Trail Blazers Monday night at Walt Disney World in Orlando for Game 4 of their first-round playoff series, they will be wearing "Black Mamba" jerseys in tribute of Kobe.
On the morning of Jan. 26, Kobe, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed when the helicopter they were riding in crashed in the Calabasas hills amid heavy fog.