Kobe Bryant honored at UNLV vigil

No one at a Wednesday night vigil at UNLV knew Kobe Bryant, but those who addressed the crowd spoke as if a longtime friend had died.

“He was an inspiration for me; he’s the one who inspired me to start playing basketball,” 21-year-old Deanna Hughes said while her voice shook as she addressed the crowd in front of the student union.

One by one, people approached a microphone to tell the crowd how the Los Angeles Lakers legend affected their lives before he was killed Sunday in a helicopter crash in California. The crash, which happened in the Calabasas area northwest of Los Angeles, killed eight others, including Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

Students released 24 purple and gold balloons into the air, while purple and gold flowers, representing the Lakers’ colors, made up a wreath in front of the crowd.Before the balloon release, the crowd of about 70 held a moment of silence for exactly 24.8 seconds — both 24 and 8 were numbers Bryant wore in his career.

At the end of the vigil, someone placed a plastic trash can in the middle of the crowd. Multiple people threw crumbled pieces of paper at the can while simultaneous chanting “Kobe” — a reference to a common joke among school-age children.

Before the vigil Wednesday night, Clark County commissioners attended an illumination of the lights at the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, which was lit up in purple and gold. Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s wife and Gianna’s mother, made her first public comment on Wednesday regarding the crash.

“There aren’t enough words to describe our pain right now,” Vanessa Bryant wrote in the statement. “I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved.”

Like many of the men and women who spoke Wednesday night, Santiago Corona told the crowd that he’s cried multiple times in the days since Bryant’s death. He said he felt like he had “lost a big part of my childhood.”

Corona said when he heard there was going to be a vigil on Wednesday, he ordered the yellow and purple wreath to honor his childhood hero.

“It’s the least I could do for all the glory he gave me as a Lakers fan,” he said after the vigil. “He did so much for us.”

Hughes, the president of the university’s Womxn of Color Coalition, helped organize the vigil. She told the crowd to celebration Bryant’s life.

“I’m saying celebration because he died a legend,” she said. “I’m happy he was there with his daughter instead of by himself.”

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.