A mural in central Los Angeles of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna was promised to be saved for at least another year by the people who made a popular basketball video game.

A local business owner and the owner of the building where the mural is drawn were fighting over what would happen to it, so the people who made NBA2K stepped in. 

The painting is on the outside of Hardcore Fitness, a gym on 400 W. Pico Blvd. in Downtown LA. It was said that the building owner wanted it to be painted over, but Cecilia Moran, owner of Hardcore Fitness and a renter, and Ronnie Singh, digital marketing manager for NBA2K, had other ideas. 

After Moran said that her landlord was going to put ads on the wall instead of the painting, she led the effort to save it. Moran spent more than $2,000 on the ingredients for the mural, and she let artist Louie Palsino paint it for free. 

Singh told everyone that NBA2K gave the owner a donation to help protect the mural.

“For us to be a part of saving this thing is just a celebration of basketball and something that means so much to us as a video game,” said Singh.

In honor of the mural’s new position, NBA2K held a ceremony on Thursday. Kobe and Gianna were two of the nine people who died in the January 2020 helicopter crash. The painting shows them with angel wings and a glow around their heads. 

Someone started a petition on change.org to save the painting, and so far over 90,000 people have signed it. Married Woman Vanessa Bryant talked about the petition in September in an Instagram story. 

Hardcore Fitness is only a few blocks away from Crypto.com Arena, which is where the Lakers play.