Vanessa Bryant took Michael Jordan’s hand and walked down from the stage, a familiar chant breaking out throughout the arena as she made her way back to her seat.
Kobe Bryant is in the Hall now, along with contemporaries Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, headliners of a group of nine who got their delayed and long-awaited enshrinement on Saturday night, more than a year after being announced as the Hall’s Class of 2020.
“Right now, I’m sure he’s laughing in heaven, because I’m about to praise him in public,” Vanessa Bryant said.
And she did, her purple dress matching the traditional Los Angeles Lakers color, capping the night by giving the speech that her husband was not here to deliver.