UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Vanessa Bryant took Michael Jordan's hand and walked down from the stage, a familiar chant breaking out throughout the arena as she made her way back to her seat. “Kobe!
Kobe! Kobe!" the crowd shouted. With that, he was — officially, finally — a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Kobe Bryant is in the Hall now, along with contemporaries Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, headliners of a group of nine who got their delayed and long-awaited enshrinement on Saturday night, more than a year after being announced as the Hall's Class of 2020. “Right now, I'm sure he's laughing in heaven, because I'm about to praise him in public," Vanessa Bryant said.