Kobe Bryant's Basketball Hall of Fame induction shifted to May'21
Kobe Bryant, the late NBA legend, will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame next May. The induction ceremony was originally scheduled for August at Springfield, Massachusetts, but has been rescheduled to May 13-15, 2021, due to the sweeping impact of COVID-19. The announcement was made by NBA officials on Saturday. Notably, he'll be joined by other top players in that ceremony.
San Antonio Spurs' favorite Tim Duncan, aka The Big Fundamentalist, and All-Star veteran Kevin Garnett are sharing the fame with the late Bryant on this momentous occasion. This assembly of the All-Stars pools in 11 NBA championships and 48 All-Star game selections. Ex-FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann, who died in 2018, is also getting enrolled in the Basketball Hall of Fame along with them.
Bryant was 41 years old when he died in a freak helicopter accident along with his daughter Gianna (13) on January 26, 2020. ESPN senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski wrote on Twitter claiming that the ex-Los Angeles Lakers player "was on his way to a travel basketball game with his daughter Gianna when the helicopter crashed." In total, nine people perished in the mishap.
Among the nine killed in the accident were Orange Coast College coach John Altobelli, his wife, and his 13-year-old daughter Alyssa, who played basketball with Gianna. The accident got embroiled in a controversy with fire captain Tony Imbrenda being removed from the post of fire department spokesperson after refusing to submit his personal cellphone from where images of the crash site were allegedly taken.
Bryant, who had the nickname of Black Mamba on the court due to his techniques, had also won an Academy Award for an animated short film in 2018. Titled Dear Basketball, it was based on a poem he had penned. Animator Glen Keane and Oscar-winning composer John Williams worked with him on the project. As he won the award, Kobe said it was surreal.
