President Donald Trump on Thursday announced plans to erect statues in honor of sports legends Kobe Bryant and Muhammad Ali at the National Garden of American Heroes, per The Bleacher Report.
Trump had initially wanted to establish the National Garden of American Heroes during his first administration. And though he signed an executive order in 2020 to bring the initiative to light, it was scrapped after former President Biden assumed office, USA Today reported.
“I have signed an Executive Order to resume the process of creating a new national park full of statues of the greatest Americans who ever lived,” Trump said during the National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol Building on Thursday.
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“We’re going to be honoring our heroes, honoring the greatest people from our country. We’re not gonna be tearing down, we’re gonna be building up.”
Trump’s first order proposed that the National Garden of American Heroes should display statues of “historically significant Americans” including scientists, civil rights leaders, judges, and authors, among others.
Other notable figures to have their statues displayed at the National Garden of American Heroes include Aretha Franklin, Jackie Robinson, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, Billie Holiday, and Coretta Scott King.
Bryant, 41, on January 26, 2020, was on board the Sikorsky S-76B with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, alongside seven others when the helicopter suddenly banked and plunged into the hills in southern California, Face2Face Africa reported at the time. Everyone on board died. The group was headed for a youth basketball match.
The deceased Los Angeles Lakers legend and Hall of Famer was a well-decorated basketball star, winning five NBA championships and two Olympic gold medals. He was also a 2-time NBA Finals MVP and an 18-time NBA All-Star. He was additionally named the league’s MVP in 2008.
Muhammad Ali similarly had a very stellar boxing career, winning the World Heavyweight Title three times. He won a total of 56 fights and lost 5, with 37 of those wins being knockouts. Ali passed away on June 3, 2016, at the age of 74.
READ ALSO: How Muhammad Ali’s refusal to join the U.S. Army made him an icon
