Stranger Things Season 4 pays tribute to Kobe Bryant
Los Gatos, California - Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin subtly honored his real-life hero, Kobe Bryant, in the new season of the hit Netflix series.
![Stranger Things' Caleb McLaughlin (l.) has honored his hero, NBA Legend Kobe Bryant (r).](https://media.tag24.de/951x634/s/k/skg4fie32mzikghrcgcnll62hd9nnrkb.jpg)
NBA legend Kobe "Mamba" Bryant received a touching tribute in the newly released season four of Stranger Things by one of the hit show's leading stars, Caleb McLaughlin.
McLaughlin's character Lucas Sinclair is a member of Hawkins High's basketball team. He subtly honored Bryant by wearing the legend's digit on his basketball jersey in the show.
Netflix revealed that the 20-year-old, who heralds Bryant as his real-life hero, came up with the idea for his on-screen character to wear Mamba's digit as a special tribute.
"The #8 jersey Lucas wears is a nod to Kobe Bryant's first jersey number," Netflix tweeted. "@calebmclaughlin is a huge fan and had the idea to pay tribute to Kobe through his character's jersey."
Despite the number being factually incorrect, since high-school players could only wear numbers ending in 0 through 5 in the 1980s, the show producers loved the plan to honor Mamba and let him don it for filming.
Bryant famously wore the number 8 for the first 10 years of his career before changing it to number 24 at the start of the 2006-2007 season.
Cover photo: Christian Petersen/ MATT WINKELMEYER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP