Kobe Bryant’s jersey retirement ceremony will include an extended, 21-minute halftime celebration at the Lakers’ game against the Warriors on Monday night.
The Lakers and Nike are holding nothing back when it comes to celebrating one of their mutual legends. There is an incredible (almost unbelievable) amount of Kobe merchandise being made available to fans. From shirts to hats (18 of them!) to sneakers, Kobe-mania is back for at least one night in L.A. and they are going to capitalize on it.
Nike isn’t just making lots of Kobe merchandise, but his longtime sponsor is also bringing back a classic commercial spot in honor of both of his numbers going into the Staples Center rafters. On Monday morning, Nike dropped three new NBA puppets ads featuring puppet Kobe and puppet LeBron, with Bryant going on and on about getting two jerseys retired while LeBron plots how he’s going to get to Milwaukees
The NBA puppets are among Nike’s very best ad campaigns, so I’m glad to see them back. Puppet LeBron exasperatedly trying to endure puppet Kobe’s ramblings about his jerseys being retired is great. The best part of the entire return of the puppets series, though, is this picture which is best without any context.
https://twitter.com/KerithBurke/status/942843673162612736
Here’s to hoping that whenever LeBron retires and has his jersey hung in the rafters in Cleveland, we get the LeBrons all back together.
