LOS ANGELES — Red roses adorned the courtside seats where Kobe and Gianna Bryant sat at the last Los Angeles Lakers game they attended. On the overhead video board, photos of Bryant in action for the Lakers alternated with those of the other seven people who were killed alongside him and his 13-year-old daughter in a helicopter crash.
Friday night at Staples Center was unlike any other.
Longtime public address announcer Lawrence Tanter introduced the entire Lakers lineup the same way: “From Lower Merion High School, No. 8, Kobe Bryant.”
In a ceremony before the Lakers’ first game since the crash on Sunday, Usher stood at center court of the darkened arena in front of No.