PHILADELPHIA — Along Interstate 95, heading into the city, there’s an electronic billboard bearing a tribute to Kobe Bryant: LEGEND. 1978-2020.
Houses on the banks of the Delaware River as well as the skyscrapers downtown are trimmed with purple lights — a nod to Bryant’s 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. From the roof of Larry’s Steaks, Bryant’s favorite cheesesteak spot, hangs a banner: “Goodbye Kobe, Gianna Bryant. You will forever be missed.”
On the steps outside of Lower Merion High School, where Bryant played in the mid-1990s, sat Don Orji, who grew up in this wooded suburb of Philadelphia.