The Golden State Warriors dropped the first game of a five-game homestand to the Philadelphia 76ers, 115-104. However, the game only played a small role in an emotional night at Wells Fargo Center.
Tuesday evening’s game was the first contest in Philadelphia following the tragic death of hometown legend, Kobe Bryant. Teams across the NBA have been finding ways to honor Bryant since his sudden loss. Yet, against the Warriors, it was Philadelphia’s turn to honor their own.
The 76ers came onto the floor in pregame warmups with special edition Bryant Philadelphia jerseys, then proceeded with a pregame ceremony to honor Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and the seven others who lost their lives in the fatal helicopter crash on Sunday in Calabasas, California.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr told media after the game that he thought the 76ers way of honoring the Lower Merion High School product was “amazing.”
First of all, I thought the pregame commemoration was amazing — I thought the 6ers did a fantastic job of capturing what’s such a difficult moment — You want to honor Kobe and his daughter and all of the victims and their families, you want to do it in a respectful way — a professional way, but you still have a basketball game to play, so it’s a very tricky thing to put together, I thought the 6ers handled it beautifully — it was really well done.
When the game started, both the Warriors and 76ers began the game with an eight and 24-second violation as an ode to the jersey numbers Bryant wore during his career. Kerr said it was “surreal” at tip-off, but once the game picked up, it turned into a regular night.
When the game started it was surreal, as you said no hype video, no starting lineups — both teams take the violations to start the game — it’s quiet in the arena, everyone’s sort of in shock and then once both teams got going then it felt like a regular game again, but it took a little while.
Golden State won’t have the chance to honor Bryant on their home court until February 8, but once they return to San Francisco from their five-game road trip, it’ll be to host the “Mamba’s” former team, the Los Angeles Lakers.