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Kobe Bryant memorial: What you need to know

Vanessa Bryant, the Lakers superstar's wife, described the event as a "Celebration of Life."
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Thousands of mourners are expected to assemble at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Monday to honor the lives of Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, who died along with seven other people in a helicopter crash in late January.

Vanessa Bryant, the Lakers superstar's wife, described the memorial service as "a Celebration of Life."

Here's what you need to know about the event:

When and where is the service?

The memorial is being held Feb. 24 at 10 a.m. (1 p.m. ET) at the Staples Center, the downtown arena where the basketball legend played for the bulk of his 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. The arena is widely known among fans as "the House That Kobe Built."

The date carries special significance for the Bryant family.

Kobe Bryant, 41, wore the No. 24 jersey in the last decade of his playing career. Gianna, a budding basketball talent who studied the game under her father, wore a No. 2 jersey on her girls basketball team. Kobe and Vanessa Bryant were together for 20 years, as she said in an Instagram post announcing the event.

The date and the venue were first reported by the Los Angeles Times, which noted that the memorial will come between two Lakers home games — one against the Boston Celtics and another against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Where can you watch the memorial?

The event will stream live via NBC News NOW on OTT devices, NBCNews.com and the NBC News mobile app.

NBCNews.com will also live-blog the memorial, providing real-time analysis and context.

How can you get tickets?

The demand for passes to the memorial has been high, by all accounts — and unless you lined up in a virtual queue last week, you missed your chance to buy tickets.

The Lakers partnered with Ticketmaster to sell a select number of tickets Wednesday to members of the general public who had registered online. The tickets were priced at three tiers: $224 each, $224 for two or $24.02 each, according to a news release from the Lakers. (The purchase limit: two tickets.)

The rest of the tickets are said to be set aside for family and friends, as well as various NBA luminaries.

The ticket prices, like the date of the memorial, are meant to pay homage to Kobe's and Gianna's jerseys.

Where will the proceeds go?

The proceeds from ticket sales, which are nontransferable and nonrefundable, will be donated to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, an organization that "exists to further Kobe and Gianna Bryant's legacy through charitable endeavors in sports," according to its website.

Vanessa Bryant renamed the foundation on Feb. 14 to include her daughter's nickname, Mambacita.