Kobe Bryant is getting love from around the world.
Italy, where Bryant grew up, is planning many of the biggest tributes to the dead NBA legend — with the country’s basketball league announcing a week-long mourning period featuring a minute’s silence before each game, calling it a “small but heartfelt” tribute to a “champion who has always had Italy in his heart.”
Bryant’s beloved soccer club AC Milan — whose shirt and scarf he kept in his locker room — also announced players would wear black armbands and keep silent before Tuesday night’s game.
The massive mourning for Bryant, 41, who died in a helicopter crash in California on Sunday, proved that his reach went far beyond the court.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “sad date for all sports lovers in the world,” while France’s sports minister, Roxana Maracineanu, said she was in “shock” over his death.
“Kobe Bryant is a GIANT of sport … The sports world is in mourning,” Maracineanu tweeted.
Tributes also poured in from China, Japan, Argentina, Brazil and across Europe, with artists in the Philippines quickly creating a giant hand-painted mural of Kobe and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna — an aspiring hoops star who died alongside her dad — on a tenement basketball court in Manila.
“The pain of Kobe’s death is without borders,” ESPN reporter Wayne Drehs wrote alongside a photo of the hand-painted court surrounded by candles and personal tributes.
Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios and his rival, Spaniard Rafael Nadal, both turned the Australian Open into tributes, with Kyrgios wearing a Bryant Lakers shirt and Nadal leading the audience in applause for “one of the greatest sportsmen in history.”
“It’s one of these days that you want to forget, but of course, Kobe Bryant will be in our hearts and in our minds for the rest of our lives,” he said, according to CNN.
Kobe Bryant’s childhood friend Alessia Pierattini looks at pictures of his First Communion in Cireglio, Italy.REUTERSSpanish soccer champions FC Barcelona were photographed holding a dignified silence during training.
England soccer ace David Beckham called Kobe “inspiring” and said, “His legacy will live on.”
Argentina’s legendary striker, Diego Maradonna, posted an image of Kobe with giant angel wings, writing, “see you, legend.”
Jamaican Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt also posted a photo of him with Kobe, writing, “still can’t believe” and posting a series of prayer emojis.
