prior to the first Lakers game since the NBA great, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others died in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
“Laker nation, man, I would be selling you all short if I read off this sh*t so I’m going to go straight from the heart,” James said to a raucous applause from the sold-out crowd at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. “This is a celebration of the 20 years of the blood, the sweat, the tears, the broken-down body, then getting back up – the determination to be as great as he could be,” he said of Bryant, who played 20 seasons with the Lakers, 18 as an all-star, and won five NBA championships.
“Kobe is a brother to me … and throughout my career, the one thing we shared was that determination to win and be great.