Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers paid tribute to Kobe Bryant before tonight’s game, the team’s first since the tragic deaths of Bryant and his daughter Gianna.
Usher performed a moving rendition of “Amazing Grace” and cellist Ben Hong played as they showed a tribute video.
And then LeBron James delivered a speech, telling the crowd he had some prepared remarks but instead decided to go “straight from the heart,” paying tribute to all of the victims of the helicopter crash this past Sunday.
“As I look around this arena, we’re all grieving, we’re all hurt, we’re all heartbroken, and when we’re going through things like this, the best thing you can do is lean on the shoulders of your family,” an emotional James said. “And from Sunday morning all the way to this point, I heard about Laker Nation before I got here last year about how much of a family it is. And that is absolutely what I’ve seen this whole week — not only from the players, not only from the coaching staff, not only from the organization, but from everybody.”
“This is really, really, truly a family.”
“Tonight we celebrate the kid that came here at 18 years of age,” James said, “retired at 38, and became probably the best dad we’ve seen over the last three years, man.