Some Things Are Bigger Than Sports - Luka Doncic Covered The Entire GoFundMe Goal To Clean Up A Kobe Bryant Mural That Was Vandalized By Some Loser
NY Post - Lakers star Luka Dončić made a touching gesture after one of the murals honoring late basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi had been vandalized in Downtown Los Angeles.
The mural, created by artist Sloe Motions, served as one of the many tributes dotted around the city following the helicopter crash that killed the father-daughter duo and 7 others in 2020.
The image showed Bryant planting a kiss on his daughter’s forehead alongside the text “Mambas Forever” — referencing Bryant’s “Black Mamba” nickname.
As a result, the artist set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for a restoration.
Shortly after launching the crowdfunding page, the Slovenian basketball star generously donated the fundraiser’s entire $5,000 goal.
“It was always important to give back to the community,” Dončić told AP after practice Tuesday. “They gave me so much, so I just want to give back.”
“Kobe is L.A. He and Gigi mean so much to this city, to the Lakers organization and to me personally,” he went on. “I’m happy to do anything to help make sure he and his daughter are honored.”
Some Things. It goes without saying the death of Kobe Bryant was devastating to The NBA, and sports overall. An entire generation of players (all around my age) grew up watching literally all of Kobe's career. They idolized him, looked up to him, respected him, and revered him. He was a superstar in every sense of the word, and an all time great. The tributes to him in the LA area, and across the world were all beautiful. The one I'll always remember sticking out was that mural in LA, maybe because it felt like the first one I remember hearing about. It was beautifully done, and was expected to be an eternal mural to honor the Lakers legend.
To see this getting vandalized is such a shame, just total scumbag behavior, and even worse they'll probably never catch them. Just complete disrespect to vandalize anything, even more so a memorial of this magnitude. But rather than focusing on the shitty aspects of this story, there does come some good and that's the part where Luka completely covered the entire balance of the GoFundMe to help the restoration. Now the balance was only $5,000 but the gesture doesn't get lost by the amount. Even being a Laker for a short period of time, he knew what Kobe meant, and knew he had to step up when someone did wrong. Class act through and through. I predict the gesture carries some weight tonight and Luka goes off tonight in Game 5, I'll for sure be rooting for him.