Fans Upset Kobe Bryant Was Left Out of the 2020 VMA’s In Memoriam Segment
On August 29, the world got to witness the first-ever socially distanced award ceremony of 2020 as MTV managed to still hold its annual Video Music Awards show. The show was hosted by actress Keke Palmer.
And like most award shows, every year it features an In Memoriam segment in which the stars of that specific business that have passed away are honored. This year, hundreds of Kobe Bryant‘s fans were upset that the basketball legend wasn’t honored.
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People believed that because actors like Chadwick Boseman were honored during the segment, the former Laker superstar should have been as well. Also honored during the heartbreaking slideshow was actress and singer Naya Rivera and rappers Pop Smoke and Juice Wrld.
“How does MTV miss Kobe Bryant in their memorial tribute at the VMAS,” another person tweeted. “And you can’t tell me they were just including music people because they had Naya and Chadwick.”
“Who at the #VMAs forgot to include Kobe Bryant in the In Memoriam section?!? You added Naya and Chadwick, you weren’t sticking to just music,” someone else added.
….they left Kobe Bryant out of this memorial line up.
— iCON Billingsley (@iCONtips) August 31, 2020#VMAs
Although Bryant, who passed away on January 26 in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant, her teammates, Alyssa Altobelli, Peyton Chester, their parents, Sarah Chester, Keri Altobelli, John Altobelli, assistant coach, Christina Mauser, and pilot Ara Zobayan, wasn’t honored during the In Memoriam video, he was honored during the opening performance of the show.
While rapping his songs, Peephole, Blind, and Rockstar, DaBaby wore a Lakers hat, jacket, and matching purple and yellow pants. Shortly after Bryant’s passing, the athlete was, however, honored at one of the biggest award shows of the year, the Grammys, in February of this year.
MTV has not yet issued a statement explaining why it was decided not to put the NBA legend into the slideshow.
