Tennis stars honor Kobe at Australian Open
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MELBOURNE, Australia – Nick Kyrgios wore a Lakers’ No. 8 jersey to honor Kobe Bryant on Jan. 27 ahead of his most important match of the Australian Open tennis tournament against top-ranked Rafael Nadal, paying his respects without needing to say a word.
Fifteen-year-old Coco Gauff had Bryant’s numbers 8 and 24, along with the inscription “Mamba Mentality,” on her shoes in a doubles match.
After his four-set loss to Nadal in the main arena at Melbourne Park, one of the four most important venues in tennis, the 24year-old Aussie wore one of Bryant’s No. 24 jerseys into his postmatch news conference.
“When I woke up to the news, it was pretty emotional. It was pretty heavy, like, all day,” Kyrgios said. “Obviously I was having basketball on at my house, watching the games. I was heavy. Yeah, it’s just tough.”
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Kyrgios, a big NBA fan who often wears basketball jerseys while practicing, wore a Bryant jersey from the locker room, through the corridor of champions, and into the warm-up on Rod Laver Arena. He took it off before play began.
The day before in America, NBA teams had paid tribute to Bryant by letting the shot clock expire for 24-second violations. Bryant’s number in the back half of his career was, of course, 24.
In the aftermath of news breaking about Bryant’s death, the Nuggets held a moment of silence for Bryant. The extended moment of silence was capped off by Nuggets fans chanting Kobe’s name at the Pepsi Center.
In Australia, fans in the Melbourne crowd wore Bryant jerseys with the numbers 8 or 24. Australian Open organizers also played a short video tribute to Bryant ahead of the KyrgiosNadal match, one of the most anticipated encounters in the two-week, season-opening major.
“We saw Kobe a lot at the U.S. Open – he was there a lot last year,” former Australian player and TV commentator Rennae Stubbs said of Bryant, a tennis fan. “He was on the ESPN set many times. He commentated half of Coco Gauff’s match with our team. We saw him around. I saw him talking to Serena (Williams) after one match.”
“A terrible day. He’s one of the great, great champions.”