Kobe Bryant will be posthumously inducted into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame following the helicopter crash that killed him, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven other people along the Southern California coast on January 26.
In what must have been a mere formality, at least 18 of the 24 anonymous voters chose Bryant, a five-time NBA title winner with the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as his rivals Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan for enshrinement in Springfield, Massachusetts. The news was first reported by The Athletic's Shams Charania.
There will be an official announcement on Saturday. Voters include Hall of Famers, executives and administrators, members of the media, and other experts in the field.
Former Houston Rockets coach and player Rudy Tomjanovich is also expected to be enshrined, according to multiple reports. The former second-overall pick is perhaps best known for coaching Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets to a pair of titles in the mid-1990s. Another former coach, Eddie Sutton, will be inducted as well, according to ESPN.
The induction ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts is still set to take place on August 29. If the pandemic forces that to be delayed, there is an alternate plan for a ceremony to happen in October.
Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo said the institution will take measures to ensure that all enshrinees get their deserved moment, and that the news of the year so far - such as Bryant's passing and the virus pandemic - do not overshadow anyone's accomplishments.
'We are going to do this the right way and in a very sensitive way,' Colangelo said. 'We want everyone to get their due respect.'
In 1995, Garnett became trail blazer for high school players making the jump to the NBA, which is a path Bryant would follow the following year. After winning an NBA MVP award with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the 6-foot-11 power forward was traded to Boston in 2007, winning his only title in his first year with the team. The 15-time All-Star was also the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year that season.
Duncan did not skip college, instead playing four years at Wake Forest before being drafted first overall by the San Antonio Spurs in 1997. The 6-foot-11 power forward would finish his NBA career with five titles and two MVP awards, and now serves as an assistant in San Antonio under his former coach, Gregg Popovich.
The announcement could be a ray of light in a dark time for basketball.
The NBA was already grieving the deaths earlier this year of Bryant and Commissioner Emeritus David Stern.
Then came the coronavirus, which shut down the league on March 11 and has stopped so much across the world since. College sports, including the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, were called off for the remainder of the academic year. Most states didn't get around to crowning high school state champions. The WNBA season will be delayed, and even games at the playground on weekends are no more because of the need for social distancing.
Saturday will, at least for a moment, bring something to celebrate.
'I think we're all looking forward to it,' Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
For Bryant, the honor is one of thousands of tributes around the world in the days after his death at 41. Murals everywhere from his native Philadelphia to the Philippines, basketball teams took 8- and 24-second violations, which was a reference to his two jersey numbers, and nearly a half million people signed a petition to make his image the NBA's new logo.
He jumped straight from a Philadelphia high school to the NBA Draft at 17, forgoing college at a time when predominant wisdom dictated that prospects develop their game at the NCAA level. And although he couldn't even vote when his NBA career began in 1996, he refused to kowtow to his veteran teammates, famously feuding with Shaquille O'Neal over the All-Star center's conditioning and dedication.
'I remember one thing he said: If you want to be great at it, or want to be one of the greats, you've got to put the work in,' LeBron James told reporters of Bryant the day before his death. 'There's no substitution for work.'
Even at the end of his career, when a battered 37-year-old Bryant and the Lakers finished just 17-65, the 18-time All-Star gave a fitting farewell, dominating the Utah Jazz in his final game while scoring 60 points — the most by any player in the NBA that season.
Bryant did not have any humble origins.
Born in Philadelphia to 76ers forward Joe 'Jellybean' Bryant and Pamela Cox, the sister of another NBA player, Kobe's life was inextricably linked to basketball, and not just in the United States.
After a solid eight-year NBA career, Joe moved the family to Italy when Kobe was just six to continue playing professionally.
It was there that Bryant learned to speak Italian fluently, scoured the NBA highlight videos his grandfather sent him from the U.S., and rooted for his father's teammate, current Houston Rockets and former Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni.
Throughout it all, basketball remained a constant in Bryant's life
His family moved back to Philadelphia at the end of his father's basketball career. The younger Bryant attended Lower Merion High School, where his jersey is now retired, and by his senior year had become a national sensation.
The Lakers traded star center Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for a Bryant's draft rights in 1996, and the budding superstar rewarded Los Angeles by winning the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award as a rookie.
Bryant was a starter by his second season, and when coach Phil Jackson brought the famous triangle offense to the Lakers in 1999, Los Angeles came back to prominence, winning three consecutive titles.
Even after the team traded O'Neal to the Miami Heat, the Lakers re-loaded with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, helping Bryant to win another two NBA titles in 2009 and 2010.
