Kobe Death Sparks Talk of NBA Logo Change

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Since his fatal helicopter crash, players across the NBA, including LeBron James, Isaiah Thomas, Jamal Crawford and many others, have talked about the impact that Kobe Bryant had on and off the court through interviews and social media.

Crawford tweeted an idea that has gotten some immediate fan support: Making Kobe the new NBA logo.

Social media has erupted with supporters for the idea of changing the logo to Kobe all across platforms like Twitter and Instagram. A 16-year-old, Nikyar Moghtader, decided to start a petition to have the logo changed in honor of Kobe. In a matter of days, it has reached an astounding 2.8 million supporters, and it’s still rising.

When asked about what Kobe meant to him and how the news was broken to him, Moghtader told Media Milwaukee that Bryant was his hero.

“I found out through a friend who had FaceTimed me,” he said. “He just told me to Google his name; he didn’t tell me anything else. I was expecting some good news like he came out of retirement or something of that sort. When the page loaded, my stomach dropped and instantly hung up the call and started looking through media to see if my hero and role model had really passed… right after that, I started the petition for him to be engraved into the NBA logo.”

On Jan. 26, 2020, the helicopter carrying the future Hall Of Famer, his daughter Gianna Bryant and seven others crashed at Calabasas hills, just outside of Los Angeles on their way to a travel basketball game for Kobe’s daughter’s basketball league.

Various NBA teams across the league have taken 24-second violations and 8-second backcourt violations to honor the star because both 8 and 24 were his numbers when he played professionally during his 20 season career, both of which were retired by the Lakers back in December of 2017.

LeBron James was one of the stars to take to social media with an emotional post.

Crawford’s tweet brings forth an idea that is already in circulation: That fans want to see the NBA honor Kobe by replacing the current logo with Jerry West and making it Kobe instead. The current logo has been in place since 1971 and has been the same until the present day despite a small change to the font that spells out NBA back in 2017.

Even the person currently featured as the logo himself, Jerry West, believes that the logo is outdated and should be changed, as he said in an interview back in April of 2017.

When asked about the support he has received for the petition, Moghtader was quick to thank the NBA’s fans.

“It’s overwhelmingly amazing. I want to personally thank all of the amazing fans of Kobe Bryant and the NBA who have contributed to the petition. Because of them, this dream can become a reality!” Moghtader said.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

This news took the world by storm, and it is undeniable that the world is in shock. After learning the news, Lakers’ fans were seen outside the Staples Center shortly after the news paying their respects to the recently passed star and everyone else who was affected.