Was LeBron James At Kobe's Memorial? Why Was He Not Pictured?

Gettyimages | John McCoy

The memorial service that was held at Staples Center on Monday to celebrate the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and essentially help all of the families of the people that lost their lives in the terrible crash has gone down as one of the saddest and most memorable moments in sports at least in the last 20 or more years.

Basketball players from the present and the past were there to pay their respects. Huge stars like Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal were even on stage to speak about Kobe. While this was going on, LeBron James was never pictured!

Gettyimages | Zhong Zhi

One of the biggest questions since the event was simply, where was LeBron James? At this point in time, neither he nor his agent or the Los Angeles Lakers organization has confirmed or denied that he was actually present at the event.

Los Angeles Lakers beat writer Dave McMenamin said that he had reached out to people close to LeBron and that all they where saying was that LeBron was "In his own space." at the time of the memorial service.

Wikimedia | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Staples-Center-at-night.jpeg

One of the oddest things about the whole ordeal is the mystery behind the issue. A few days after Kobe's death when the Lakers had their first game at Staples Center since the incident LeBron was actually the one to step up and give a speech on behalf of the team in the mini memorial service that was put on display before the actual game.

If he was just not able to emotionally handle taking the stage at the memorial or did not want the cameras on him during the event, there would be no shame in that. Being public with that information could have been the better way to go to avoid speculation.

Gettyimages | FREDERIC J. BROWN

As can be seen in the previous video where LeBron is addressing the media he is not making any type of public statement as far as whether or not he had attended the ceremony. There is speculation that he may have been in a suite inside the Staples Center. Hence the idea that he was in his own space.

As he himself said, he was an emotional wreck on the day of the event. Which, could be the reason why he just could not bring himself to attend.

Gettyimages | Harry How

LeBron himself mentioned that there is no closure. At least at this point in time, he has not been able to find any. What, can be seen though is that he has perhaps a stronger drive on the court. In the past couple of games, we have really been able to see James step his game up.

He recently recorded his first 40 point game of the season. He led the team to a very emotional win over the Celtics just a couple of nights ago. His play is not being affected by his personal pain.