Tennessee players have unique way to honor Kobe Bryant ahead of Tuesday’s game
By Adam Spencer
Published:
The sports world is mourning the loss of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, his teenage daughter, and 7 other victims of a helicopter crash in California on Sunday.
Many of today’s college players grew up watching Kobe dominate the competition in the NBA. That is certainly the case with this year’s Tennessee program.
Coach Rick Barnes said on Monday that the Vols want to wear purple shoe laces on Tuesday night for their game against Texas A&M (via 247Sports):
“The impact that he had, yesterday I was at my brother-in-law’s funeral when I heard the news,” Barnes said. “Our assistants yesterday were with our team. When they told them what had happened, guys in the room started crying. I think that shows you the impact. Our guys want to wear purple shoe laces tomorrow night (against Texas A&M). It shows you the impact a guy like Kobe Bryant had.”
That would be really cool to see, and many teams will likely have touching tributes to the NBA legend in the coming days and weeks in the wake of this unthinkable tragedy.
Tennessee will host Texas A&M at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday night. That game can be seen on the SEC Network.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
