On Saturday, hundreds of fans waited in the rain to see the 32-year-old guard earn another title: the first athlete to have both his hands and his feet immortalized in cement outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
Typically, this tribute is reserved for Hollywood stars, but Bryant joins the only other person not associated with the film industry to receive the honor — Grauman’s mother.
Jimmy Kimmel hosted the event and wondered aloud why the NBA star was being celebrated on Hollywood Boulevard.
“It’s fitting that Kobe Bryant would have a place in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre because although he’s not an actor nor does he have any experience in theatrical arts he is — wait, why is this fitting? I’m not sure exactly. The closest Kobe has ever come to acting is pretending he’s going to pass to Luke Walton.”
Bryant, however, was nothing but grateful.
“This is a tremendous honor,” he said. “I feel extremely honored to be able to do this. It’s never something I actually thought about when I was watching movies. I never thought my hand and foot prints would be sitting right here at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.”
“I can’t believe I’ve been in L.A. 15 years. It went by so fast. I can remember like it was yesterday being 17 years old and coming to L.A. and not knowing the freeways; the 405, the 101. I had no idea what was going on. I feel like I’ve grown up in this city. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs but here we are with five championships and plenty more to go.”
After his speech, Bryant was led to the red velvet cushion, where he wrote his name and cast his handprints and sneaker-clad footprints in the wet cement.
