Fans hoping to attend the official memorial for NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, in Los Angeles this month will face a difficult time obtaining tickets, and they might have to spend big.

A “limited number of tickets” will be on sale to the public on Tuesday for as much as $224 each ahead of the Feb. 24 event at Staples Center, according to a Friday news release from the Lakers.

Gianna, 13, and Kobe, who retired in 2016 after starring for the Lakers for 20 years, died along with seven other people on Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash just outside Los Angeles.

There was no immediate information about how many total tickets will be for sale to the public. The tickets will be priced in three tiers: $224 for one, $224 for two or $24.02 for one. (Kobe played wearing the jersey No. 24 for the last 10 years of his career; Gianna, who also played basketball, wore the No. 2.) The rest of the tickets are reserved for friends, family and members of the NBA community.

Though it was announced that proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the Bryants’ recently renamed Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation, there was swift backlash on social media against both the decision to charge for tickets and the cost of the top tier tickets, which many viewed as exorbitant.

Tickets were not sold for previous memorials held at Staples Center. Over 1 million people entered a lottery for 17,500 free tickets to attend Michael Jackson’s memorial in 2009. Last year, all of the tickets for Nipsey Hussle’s memorial were claimed in seconds. They were also free.

Going to his foundation? Better gesture would be for it to go to the families of the others on board.


(And stop with the racist [bleep], JFC some of you just suck as people - like you Ghost)

I have better things to focus on than what the lying media says.

Schit never ends.

Negroes are gods.

It takes black folks a looooong time to bury famous black folks.

https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/aretha-franklin-public-viewing-dressed-in-red-louboutins.html

You think they are lying about selling tickets to a memorial service?

If Kobe had been White, do you seriously believe all this media coverage over his death would have happened?

Here is the cold hard truth, something people such as yourself apparently don't get..................the liberal media has gone out of it's way to elevate the Negro to a status above that of the White race. As a White man, I'm tired of seeing a race of people who's population is about 13% of the total in this country, having their faces smeared all over television and the news, and being portrayed as "better" than most Whites...............when, in fact, the Negro is the biggest cause of crime in this country, and has been a drain on the economy ever since the Civil Rights Act was passed.

Now, you can call that racist if you want.............I call it the truth.

Once again proof of stupid bastards!

Down here they hold ‘em on the ‘cooling board’ until the family pays the burial expense!

Here is the cold hard truth, something people such as yourself apparently don't get..................the liberal media has gone out of it's way to elevate the Negro to a status above that of the White race. As a White man, I'm tired of seeing a race of people who's population is about 13% of the total in this country, having their faces smeared all over television and the news, and being portrayed as "better" than most Whites...............when, in fact, the Negro is the biggest cause of crime in this country, and has been a drain on the economy ever since the Civil Rights Act was passed.

Now, you can call that racist if you want.............I call it the truth.

The rule of thumb here for Blacks is that they have the funeral a week after they die. I asked one why they waited so long, and he said it was because it took the out of town relatives time to get there. Which might mean that it takes time to go to Enterprise and rent a car.

On something of a side note, a very well known local Black man died quite a few years ago, and it was in the middle of summer, and therefore hot. A man I knew went to the wake, and told me that you could actually smell the body. I guess they didn't get him on ice soon enough.