Kobe Bryant’s two Lakers jersey numbers will light up the Santa Monica coastline Monday evening when the Pacific Wheel displays a 90-foot tribute to the late basketball star in recognition of Kobe Bryant Day.
The Ferris wheel at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier will display “LA (heart) 24” and “LA (heart) 8” in Lakers purple and gold beginning at sunset, about 7:30 p.m., and continuing until midnight, according to organizers.
Custom patterns and transitions celebrating Bryant’s career and legacy in Los Angeles will also be displayed across the wheel’s 174,000 LED lights.
Aug. 24 is observed as Kobe Bryant Day in Los Angeles, with the 8/24 date representing the two jersey numbers Bryant wore during his 20-season career with the Lakers. The observance comes one day after Bryant’s Aug. 23 birthday.
Bryant spent his entire NBA career with the Lakers from 1996 to 2016, helping the team win five NBA championships and earning 18 All-Star selections. He was named the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2008 and was twice named NBA Finals MVP.
Bryant scored 33,643 points during his career and remains the Lakers’ all-time leader in regular-season points and games played. He ended his career in memorable fashion on April 13, 2016, scoring 60 points against the Utah Jazz in his final game.
The Lakers retired both of Bryant’s jersey numbers, No. 8 and No. 24, in December 2017, making him the first player in franchise history to have two numbers retired.
Bryant was 41 when he was killed along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven other people in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Jan. 26, 2020.
Bryant’s legacy has since been memorialized at the Lakers’ downtown Los Angeles arena.
A 19-foot bronze statue of Bryant was unveiled outside Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 8, 2024. The statue depicts him in his No. 8 uniform with his right index finger raised, recreating the moment after his 81-point performance against the Toronto Raptors in 2006.
A second statue, depicting Bryant and Gianna sitting courtside together, was unveiled outside the arena on Aug. 2, 2024. That date — 8/2/24 — incorporated both of Bryant’s Lakers numbers and Gianna’s No. 2 youth basketball jersey.
The Pacific Wheel tribute will use an LED lighting system capable of displaying 16.7 million color combinations and computer-generated images at up to 24 frames per second, according to Pacific Park.
The lights are mounted across the Ferris wheel’s 40 spokes and two hubs. Pacific Park bills the attraction as the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel.
The Pacific Wheel is located at Pacific Park, 380 Santa Monica Pier.
Additional information is available at pacpark.com.