\u201cFor us at the NMAAHC, Kobe holds a very special place in our hearts,\u201d NMAAHC interim director Spencer Crew said shortly after Kobe\u2019s untimely death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the very critical stages of building the museum, Kobe and Vanessa Bryant became founding donors, giving us the boost that we needed to keep moving forward,” Crew continued. “Kobe also had the opportunity to visit the museum before its opening. He was so moved by the experience that he later donated his uniform jersey<\/a> from the 2008 NBA Finals, the year he was named the league MVP.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The jersey is white with yellow panels and purple piping and accents. It features a sewn design across the front reading \u201cLakers\/24\u201d and on the back reading \u201cBryant\/24.\u201d The NBA logo is embroidered on the left shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The display text accompanying the Bryant jersey reads: \u201cIn 1996, Kobe Bryant became the first guard to successfully make the leap from high school to the National Basketball Association. At the time, experts were skeptical that high school wing players could compete in the NBA. His success ushered in the modern era of younger players in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKobe\u2019s contributions on and off the court are remarkable,\u201d Crew said. \u201cAs a founding donor, he understood the significance of this museum to the nation and the world. After postponing the March installation due to COVID-19, we believe now is the perfect moment in history to honor his memory by placing his jersey on view.\u201d The basketball icon\u2019s life was tragically cut short in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020. Shortly after, the museum shared that in addition to the jersey, Kobe also donated a 2002 photograph<\/a> that finds the rising star lounging on a couch in a Manhattan apartment. The photograph has been on display since late January. As a founding donor of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), the late Kobe Bryant urged his Twitter followers to visit the museum in 2016 by tweeting, \u201cThere is no greater testament to this country than the stories in this building.\u201d The Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation also contributed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-features"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Kobefinalssc.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1077,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions\/1077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Kobe-Jersey.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
As a five-time NBA champion, Bryant earned the NBA MVP in 2008 and NBA Finals MVP awards in 2009 and 2010 with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he spent his entire NBA career. Bryant was also part of the U.S. men\u2019s Olympic basketball team that won gold medals in 2008 and 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bryant\u2019s jersey will be on view next to a pair of LeBron James\u2019 15 \u201cEquality\u201d sneakers<\/a> by Nike. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"