Two years ago, a tragedy rocked the American basketball world and the larger society in return, as the news of the death of beloved basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna “Gigi” Bryant, and other acquaintances in a helicopter crash spread. Today a sculpture has been erected at the scene of the unfortunate incident as a memorial to the precious lives that were lost.

The 160-pound sculpture statue depicts Bryant in his Los Angeles Lakers uniform with his arm around Gigi, also in her basketball uniform and holding a ball. The artwork was produced by Southern California artist Dan Medina who temporarily displayed the piece of art in Calabasas, near the crash site where the NBA legend and his 13-year old daughter died on January 26, 2020.

"On this day, the second anniversary of the accident, I decided to bring it from sunrise to sunset and create a healing process for fans. Today was special because I witnessed a lot of that. People would come up and would leave with some sort of satisfaction," said sculptor Dan Medina who was on hand to greet fans who made the 1.3-mile hike to pay their respects to the sports legend.

"This is all on my own, no one asked me to do it," said Medina.

Listed on the sculpture’s platform are the names of the seven other people aboard the helicopter on that fateful day. The inscription read: “heroes come and go but legends are forever,” along with the names of the other crash victims – Christina Mauser; Payton and Sarah Chester; John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli; and pilot Ara Zobayan.

“You come up here and it is kind of emotional,” Medina said. “The flowers, the jerseys, the hats blow away, and I think we need something more permanent. I kind of want to follow the law, respect the locals, respect the Santa Monica Mountains.”

Medina further disclosed to the Los Angeles Times that the statue is a smaller version of a life-size sculpture he is working on which he hopes can find a location in downtown Los Angeles.