A bronze sculpture honouring NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant was temporarily constructed at the helicopter crash site where they died on the second anniversary of their deaths.

Dan Medina’s bronze monument features Kobe and Gigi in basketball jerseys, looking at each other passionately as Gigi clutches her father’s hand on her shoulder. The sculptor had moved the 150-pound monument personally to its new location.

Medina was on hand to greet admirers who had trekked the 2.1km to pay their respects to the sports star.

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Medina also told Winton that he believes the memorial will remain there indefinitely.

“You come up here, and it’s a little emotional,” he explained. “The flowers, jerseys, and hats fly away, and I believe we require something more lasting.”

“This is entirely on my own; no one asked me to do it,” he explained.

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“On this day, the second anniversary of the disaster,” he says, “I chose to bring it up from sunrise to sunset and create a bit of a healing process for fans.”

The names of all nine victims of the early morning crash on January 26, 2020, are engraved on the steel pedestal of the statue.

It also contains Bryant’s famous phrase, “Heroes come and go, but legends live on.”

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Kobe and Gianna Bryant, as well as six other passengers, including Sarah Chester, Payton Chester, John Altobelli, Kerry Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, and Christina Mauser, were on their way to Mamba Sports Academy when the helicopter crashed in a Calabasas hillside, killing all eight passengers and pilot Ara Zobayan.