Chinese students make great Kobe Bryant tribute portrait on snow-covered court
With all due respect to framed jerseys, video packages and sneakers in glass cases, my favorite tribute thus far on Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour comes from a place the “Black Mamba” has yet to visit since announcing his plan to retire after the end of this season, thus lighting the fuse on his Viking funeral:
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Farewell, @kobebryant! Students draw out “Forever 24” on snow in NE #China‘s Jilin to salute the great NBA star pic.twitter.com/YrlE9hEMk6
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) December 7, 2015
Yep — that’s a giant portrait of Kobe, created on a snowy playground court, by students at Beihua University in China’s Jiling Province to pay tribute to the global megastar as he shoots his way toward the end of a magnificent 20-year NBA career. Who needs highlight reels and customized gifts when you’ve got buckets, brooms, shovels and a few hours to kill?
From The Los Angeles Times:
Wei Xudong, a sophomore majoring in sculpturing at Beihua University, said he and some classmates were looking for an idea for their next art project when he read the letter from Bryant announcing his retirement.
“I must do something for Kobe,” said Wei. “I always thought he had not decided on retiring from the NBA, maybe he’ll play one more season. Now I know this is the last season I can see him play.” […]
Wei and his classmates completed a snow portrait of Bruce Lee on an outdoor basketball court a week ago. Wei said that when he learned about Bryant’s retirement, “I started to look for different pictures of Kobe online. I wanted to find a good picture of what Kobe looks like today, not when he was younger, because this is for commemorating the Kobe we see today is retiring.” […]
It took the group of eight students and a teacher four hours Sunday morning to complete the portrait. A local TV station even sent in a drone camera to record the whole process.
It’s not the first such gesture Bryant’s received from his diehard supporters in China. A couple of years back, a sculpture of Kobe looking peaceful yet defiant popped up in the Guangzhou Sculpture Park. (That, of course, had nothing on the sculpture of a nude Bryant wrestling a giant snake exhibited in Taiwan last year.)
He’s a figure beloved enough in China to make grown men weep in the street, and that scarcely begins to scratch the surface of the nation’s love affair with the Los Angeles Lakers legend, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding wrote two years ago:
The passion for Kobe in China, as Seto explains, usually goes from amazing to overzealous to…we’ve got to get the hell out of here!
Seto’s best example of the Chinese fandom is when 15,000 fans were waiting for Bryant at one venue at 9 in the morning.
“He wasn’t going to appear until 4 in the afternoon,” she said. […]
“People are chasing the van…and then people start kissing the windows,” Seto said.
In that context, a giant snow portrait seems downright staid and quaint. And yet, even through the purple-and-gold-colored glasses worn by so many of his Kobe-loving colleagues, Wei joins the great Jerry West (and many other observers) in finding it difficult to watch the version of Bryant who’s shooting 30.6 percent from the floor and 21.9 percent from 3-point range for a Lakers club that sits at 3-18, the worst record in the Western Conference. More from the Times:
As much as he hates to see his idol leave the game, Wei said he’s aware of the toll on Bryant’s body after 20 years of pounding in a league as physical as the NBA.
“I must admit, it’s painful to see Kobe play this season sometimes,” said Wei. “He does look older on the court.”
Thanks to Wei and his classmates, though, Kobe will be “Forever 24” … at least, until winter turns to spring, the snow and ice thaw, and we come face-to-face with the end of the line for one of the greatest players in basketball history.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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