It’s just a statue commemorating probably the most beloved Los Angeles Lakers basketball player ever, no big deal.
After the February unveiling of a new statue dedicated to Kobe Bryant at Crypto.com Arena, someone finally took the time to read the various inscriptions on the base of the statue. It probably would have been easier to mark any edits using a program like Microsoft Word than applying red pen to polished granite, but the Lakers have announced they’re working on correcting the following:1
- Former NBA players José Calderón and Von Wafer’s names are misspelled Jose Calderson and Vom Wafer; and
- The phrase “DNP – Coach’s Decicion” appears directly under the correctly spelled “DNP – Coach’s Decision.”
It’s supposed to be like that
Another [less costly] option would be to claim that the errors were made on purpose. The 2017 unveiling of a statue on the USC campus included verses from Hamlet and the playwright’s name: Shakespear.
When pressed on the missing final e, the university said they did it on purpose, citing the various spellings of the Bard’s name throughout the centuries, for example Shakspeare, Shakspere, Shaksper, Shackspeare, and Shagspere. They had chosen an older spelling on purpose, even though it was less common. (Sure [wink].)2