At her request, Vanessa Bryant and her three daughters will receive some of the items that Kobe Bryant fans have left outside of the Los Angeles Staples Center. Items include stuffed animals, letters and more, which fans rushed to place outside of the basketball stadium in the wake of Kobe’s death.
The news arrives after Staples Center President Lee Zeidman told the Los Angeles Times that the memorial items will be removed from outside the arena on Sunday (Feb. 2), after the Super Bowl.
“It will have been a week. We have contractually obligated events that are moving in,” he told the outlet. “Vanessa had reached out to us and said, ‘Our family would like the items out there.’ So we’re going to catalog every one of them. By that I mean, T-shirts, letters, basketballs, stuffed animals [and] toys. We’re going to put those in specially made containers and we’re going to ship them to the family.”
Zeidman also revealed that perishable items left by fans, such as flowers, will be composted and spread around the complex.
“So, we’re going to compost all those flowers out there and spread them around the plants in and around L.A. Live and in and around Staples Center,” he explained, adding that he got the idea from England’s Manchester Arena, which did the same thing when fans brought flowers after the Ariana Grande concert terrorist attack.
“So, that means that all those fans that took the time to buy the flowers and plants and brought them down there, some of that will still be around the site,” Zeidman continued. “Our goal is to somehow have it cleaned up as we relate to the middle of next week and we’re asking people — we’re going to put signage all around LA Live and Staples Center — if you still feel the need to do something, you can certainly come down here. But we hope that you wouldn’t bring any gift and flowers, but that you donate to the Mamba Foundations that they’ve already set up.”
Kobe and his daughter Gianna were killed with seven others in a tragic helicopter crash last Sunday (Jan. 26). He will be honored during the Super Bowl halftime show by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira later today (Feb. 2).