Mural Honoring Kobe Bryant Pops Up In Austin

AUSTIN, TX — A mural created in Austin days after the unexpected death of basketball great Kobe Bryant has been luring a steady stream of fans of the late athlete — many silently coming to pay their respects as others leave offerings — but not everybody is happy with the tribute.

Local artists began work on the mural — painted on an exterior wall of the Sushi Hi restaurant at 2912 Guadalupe St. — on Tuesday, Jan. 28, just two days after the death of Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a California helicopter crash. The finishing touches were added to the wall painting the following day.

Since then, fans of the former Los Angeles Lakers player and the curious have descended to the parking lot to see the artwork showing the faces of the basketball player and his daughter — a budding basketball player herself who was poised to follow in her famous father’s footsteps.

Patch recently visited the site, seeing a group of young people silently gazing at the mural in a mood reminiscent of a funeral wake. At the base of the mural, basketballs, flowers and other sports mementos had been left as offerings.

Offerings have been left at the base of an Austin mural paying tribute to Kobe Bryant and his daughter following their deaths. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

Jay Rivera, the artist who created the portraits of the athlete and his daughter, told Patch in a telephone interview he was immediately inspired to provide a tribute to the fallen athlete upon hearing news of his death.

"I was left in shock," he recalled. "You don't have to follow basketball to know who Kobe was. Once Kobe passed, it was almost immediate — I started drawing that night."

He tasked his girlfriend and assistant Riki Loring and fellow artist Felix Jaimes for the lettering, and quickly created the tribute. Rivera runs a company called lacedandfound, which once dealt in sales of sneakers and T-shirts that is now 90 percent devoted to art, he said.

Donning a jersey like the one worn by his sports hero, a young man visits the mural that was created to honor the fallen player. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

But mere hours after completing the mural, someone defaced it with the word "rapist" scrawled next to the likeness of the basketball player. Avila said the mural was defaced a second time with the same word.

As the New York Times and multiple other media outlets reported at the time, allegations of rape were lodged against Bryant during a 2003 trip to Colorado for a knee operation. While there, he invited a woman to his hotel room for what the athlete later categorized as consensual sex after the woman said that she had been raped.

Bryant later agreed to pay the woman in an undisclosed settlement and issued an apology:

"Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did," Bryant said in a prepared statement at the time.

The mural and its defacement comes against the backdrop of protests at the University of Texas at Austin over the school's handling of sexual misconduct among some professors.

Every day since the mural was created honoring Kobe Bryant, a steady stream of fans have descended to the spot to gaze at the artwork. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

The same day work on the mural began, emotional students lambasted UT-Austin President Gregory L. Fenves and other school administrators in a tense, two-hour meeting critical of the university's handling of those found violating sexual misconduct policies. The meeting followed months of demonstrations by undergraduate students condemning professors found to have violated the university's sexual misconduct policies but are still being allowed to teach classes, as the Texas Tribune and other media outlets reported.

Rivera said the young woman who defaced his mural the second time acknowledged she had less of an issue with the player than she had with the courts system in general.

"We have so many mixed emotions on it," Rivera said. "We've been discussing this internally, and I understand where someone's frustration might be. Nonetheless, there's a platform for everybody, and I think writing 'rapist' on a mural is the wrong platform."

He noted the twice-scrawled word has been painted next to the picture of the player's daughter, and in full view of families with children arriving to admire the mural. Rivera said the restaurant itself has received a handful of calls demanding the mural be painted over. Ironically, Sushi Hi owner Moon Kyong Bae told Patch in an interview that she had welcomed the artwork in hopes of deterring the previously blank wall from being tagged with random graffiti.

Rivera said the mural may eventually have to be covered over and replicated in another location should the controversy over its creation grow. "We don't want them having any trouble or being harassed," Rivera said of the restaurant operators. "If it continues to happen, they will have to make the decision. If it has to be painted over, we'll move it somewhere else."

An ever-growing assortment of offerings — including several basketballs — are being left at the base of a mural in Austin honoring the late Kobe Bryant and his daughter following their deaths in a helicopter crash. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.