LOS ANGELES — Taylor Swift has a Kobe Bryant connection – wait, you didn’t know that?
It was maybe the most-watched moment of the Eras Tour: While performing her hit song, 22, at SoFi Stadium on Aug. 3, Swift gave her signature hat, and a hug, to Kobe and Vanessa Bryant’s 6-year-old daughter, Bianka. Vanessa shared the viral video along with a photo of the custom jean jacket she was wearing that day – on the back of the jacket, an image of Kobe Bryant onstage with Swift on Aug. 21, 2015.
That was the day Bryant surprised the singer with her very own championship banner at LA’s Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena, the home of the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and Kings).
“Just so you know, me being up here right now makes me the coolest dad ever to my kids,” Kobe Bryant told Swift to cheers onstage. “After you complete these five sold out shows here at Staples Center, that’s going to give you 16 sold out shows here, which is the most of any artist ever. And 16 is a very special number here in Los Angeles because 16 is the same amount of championships we have as a Lakers franchise.
"To celebrate those championships, we do something very special. We hang banners. That’s what we do. So, on behalf of Staples Center and all of your fans here in Los Angeles, it is my honor to reveal for the first time, your own championship banner here at Staples Center. It’s going to hang here forever.”
That was the plan, but it didn’t work out that way. The banner was taken down during the pandemic, and hasn’t been seen since.
The pushback to the banner from fans of the Lakers, Clippers and Kings was almost immediate. People thought the banner, which was nearly the size of three Lakers championship banners, was far too big. Clippers fans quickly grew tired of jokes that Swift had more championship banners (1) than the Clippers (0). The Clippers initially covered up the banner along with the entire west rafters with giant portraits of their players. Before the start of the 2019-2020 season, the Kings followed suit.
One year later, the Lakers won their 17th championship, and there was no more room in the rafters. You can guess what happened next.
It looks like the Taylor Swift banner has been removed at Staples Center. pic.twitter.com/YBbQvZbcpc
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) December 23, 2020
So where the heck is Taylor’s banner? We went to the source.
“We have the banner here,” Lee Zeidman, president of Crypto.com Arena, Peacock Theater and LA Live told The Messenger in late August. “It’s folded up and locked away in a room here at the arena where we store other things.”
Swift’s banner will still be folded up and locked away when the Kings, Lakers and Clippers begin their seasons in October, but that will likely change next year when the Clippers move to their new home, the $2 billion Intuit Dome near SoFi Stadium, and Crypto.com Arena finishes a two-year renovation.
“We are going to look for a place to display it on the main concourse,” Zeidman said. “We want to make it a photo-op where fans can take a picture with it.”
Swift isn’t the first artist to have a banner displayed at an iconic sports arena. Three years after Bryant presented Swift with her banner, New York Rangers legend Mark Messier presented Billy Joel with a banner to commemorate his record run of sold out shows at Madison Square Garden. While Joel is intrinsically connected to Madison Square Garden, Swift has not performed at the arena formerly known as Staples Center since her banner went up in 2015.That could possibly change when her banner returns.
“Will she ever come back and do a show here? I don’t know,” Zeidman said. “I don’t think anybody can predict that but we would love to host her again perhaps as some kind of residency when she’s done with her Eras Tour and her stadium run.
"We would love for her to return and consider a residency similar to what Billy Joel did at Madison Square Garden. We would love for her to do something like that here.”
Before they can talk about a potential Swift residency, the arena will need to unfold her banner, shake it off and find a blank space, baby.