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I don’t think there was a single dry eye in Los Angeles the night Kobe Bryant played his last game. I don’t think anyone who’s a fan of basketball had a dry eye that night.
Even I started to tear up seeing Kobe single handedly will his team to victory one last time, the way he’s done it for 20 years.
He scored sixty points against the Utah Jazz, but with 31 seconds on the game clock, he came down the court with the ball in his hands and rose for his final field goal in his illustrious career.
A jump shot off a screen at the side of the key, and he buried it. The arena reacted as if this was Game Seven of the finals as their hero delivered in the clutch for the final time.
The game didn’t mean anything for these two franchises; the Jazz was eliminated from playoff contention earlier in the evening with a win by the Houston Rockets, and the Lakers were ready to wrap up the worse season in franchise history.
It still felt and looked like a playoff setting. Players past and present sent their congratulations out to Kobe through multiple video tributes prior to his final introduction, and fans all over the world sent their thanks through social media outlets.
It felt surreal; a living legend was getting ready to play his final game in a league where he spent more than half his life playing. During his entire career, he played as if every game was going to be his last and now that the time had arrived, the Black Mamba was going to leave whatever he had left out on the floor of the Staples Center.
What Kobe did that night left the Golden State Warriors’ NBA record setting 73rd win of the season as an afterthought. He took 50 shots, hitting 22 including his last five in the comeback victory where he scored 23 in the final quarter.
It couldn’t have happened any other way; if his entire career wasn’t an indication of how he would end it, Bryant had to go out shooting.
He ended his career as number three on the all-time leading scorers list, a five time NBA championship, two time finals MVP, 18 time NBA All-star, one MVP, 11 All-NBA first team selections, two time scoring champion and the Los Angeles Lakers, all-time leading scorer.
We can have the barbershop talks and compare him to the legends before him and whether or not he’s on your top five all time players list or not. When your will and determination matches your skill level, you’ll get one of the greatest players of all time.
The ambition and competitiveness that he carried his entire career never changed; Kobe will be Kobe.
Thanks for the memories, Mamba.
Editor’s note: Hall of Game is a weekly commentary series covering everything sports-related. Facts not attributed are purely the opinion of the writer.
| Date Taken: | 04.21.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 04.22.2016 11:15 |
| Story ID: | 196222 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE , NC, US |
| Web Views: | 446 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Mamba out: Kobe's last game, by Sgt Sean Berry, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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