OMG. What a night. What a game. What a performance for the ages. Like the 81 point game we needed every last bit of his effort and we got it. Exhausted in the 4th quarter with 7 minutes to go and he kept going and going for the shots and the win. We are all the real witnesses. And talk about calling it ..... bow down to the great Adrian Wojnarowski in his thoughts on Kobe a few pages back: "Finally, it ends on Wednesday, goodbye to Kobe Bryant in the Staples Center. Something about the night will be unforgettable, a forever moment, and you can’t be sure if it’ll come before the game, or during or afterward. It just will come, because it always has. And eventually, there might be a moment when my eyes will be darting to that tape recorder, making sure the red light is lit, and I’ll know this: Someone else will be talking into that little contraption in these playoffs, and next season, and the years after that – and it’ll just never be the same. It’ll never again be Kobe Bean Bryant."
Seriously, it's an amazing accomplishment, but the actual game was a blowout. Not exactly exciting unless you're a Warriors fan. They moved one of the best regular season games I've ever seen to ESPN 2. They doubted Kobe one last time.
What an epic performance. Will never forget Kobe's final game. At least for one night it felt like old times when we were competing for championships.
Oh there will be. All those camera guys they had following him these weeks and especially tonight. Who wouldn't pay for a well narrated and produced bluray in high quality of this last game of Kobe's. Lots of money to be generated from this. Jeanie lock Kobe up to be an executive in the FO in some player development capacity and hands on YODA like teaching for any and all Lakers players who want it and are willing to work. As he can fit it into what certainly is going to be his busy life with all kinds of projects going forward. Instant credibility back with him in the meetings. No matter who sits at the table checking us out Kobe would bring back the respect we have lost. And no matter who it is sitting there at the table of any and ALL prime free agents in the game .... Bryant can take them to a higher level of execution if they really want it and want to be great. Most skilled player in the history of the game and right at the top with the most competitive players ever in the history of the game. Oh and Jeanie ..... don't blow this. Fire Byron Scott. Capitalize on the moment and and give the franchise something to look forward to next season. Just do it.
Everything I want to say has been said within the past few pages. I don't think I'm sleeping tonight, I'm still buzzing from it. Now if someone would just send me a dvd copy of this game, that would be great.
I'll always remember this night. I played ball with some friends tonight and we were talking about which game to watch tonight. Obviously I knew what I was watching. As I was heading home to shower, I called my local bar and asked my bartender if he would put on the Lakers game, and of course he obliged. I get there and run into this girl that I met once before right as the game comes on. I start to explain the significance of the night, and we joke about how long it will take for him to hit his first shot. After his 0-5 start and they call a timeout, I tell her that he'll come back from the break with the jitters let loose. After he makes his next 3 shots, we're all in. After that stellar first quarter, the bartender pours us a couple Jameson shots that we agree we'll take when he hits 20 points. It didn't take long for that moment, and while I knew 40 was mathematically possible, I still doubted if he had the energy left in him. At 37, the bartender pours 2 more shots for us when he hits 40. Even then, I worried he might somehow fall a point shy. He gets to 43, two more shots poured for 50. Next thing I know he's hitting the game winning shot and finishing his career at 60 on the free throw line. Poetic justice after hitting the free throws following his torn Achilles. By the end of the game, the whole bar is giving Kobe a standing ovation. This all happened in a random neighborhood bar in Manhattan. You could not have scripted a better ending for this man's career and I'm genuinely happy to share it with people that couldn't have cared less to start, but by the end truly understood the beauty in what we had just witnessed. As one of his biggest fans I still doubted he could do the unthinkable at his last shining moment. It's only fitting that he proved me wrong, like he's done to his haters for the last 20 years.
Storybook ending to an incredible career. So happy for Kobe that his last game was a win and he scored 60. He's given us his all. These last few years have been tough. It felt great to be cheering at the end of the game instead of yelling. You will be missed Kobe.
I am currently in Mumbai, India, to study for a couple of months and the game started at 8 am. The wifi here is shaky so I organized yesterday that I could watch in the dining area on TV. I sat there totally by myself at 8 sharp. After a while people came, started cleaning, having breakfast, etc. Everyone looking at the screen and at me, noone got why i was watching. At the end, there were some people that got the significance and when Kobe led the comeback they were hooked and cheering like I was. Unbelievable last game experience...
Kobe goes out with a bang, scores 60 in final game to beat Jazz Dan Devine,Ball Don't Lie 1 hour 7 minutes ago Kobe Bryant's 20th and final NBA season came to a close on Wednesday night. He finished it exactly as he spent most of it: remorselessly and gleefully gunning. And everybody loved it, because it was perfect. It couldn't have been more perfect. In his last game as a professional basketball player, Bryant fully embraced the Viking funeral that began when he announced on Nov. 29, 2015, that this would be his last ride. With Los Angeles Lakers fans, NBA legends, former teammates, Hollywood royalty, his wife and his children watching his every move, Kobe entertained us all one more time with a performance that seemed, even as it was unfolding, like the stuff of fiction. He scored 60 points — the highest-scoring game in the NBA this season, topping Anthony Davis' 59; the sixth 60-point game of his career, second-most all-time behind fellow Laker great Wilt Chamberlain; and the most points ever by a player in his final NBA game (joining, of all people, Jordan Crawford and Eddie House!). He did so on 50 field-goal attempts, the most by any player in any one game dating back to the 1983-84 season, to lead the Lakers to a thrilling and unbelievable 101-96 win over the visiting Utah Jazz. In yet another season full of losing, Kobe went out a winner ... and he went out a winner in the most precisely, 10-out-of-10 Kobe way humanly possible. Bryant became the fifth player in NBA history to score 40 or more after age 37, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Dirk Nowitzki, who did it just last month. He is the second player to score 50 or more after age 37, joining MJ. He is the only player to score 60 after age 37. On that score, he stands alone. He scored 38 points after halftime, mixing in trips to the rim, deep 3s and pull-up jumpers en route to going 15-for-30 from the field after intermission. He played all but the final four seconds of the third and fourth quarters to carry the Lakers back from a 15-point halftime deficit. He outscored the Jazz by himself in the fourth quarter, 23-21. And, perfectly enough, his final play as an NBA player ... was a pass, a hit-ahead feed for a Jordan Clarkson dunk that gave the game its final margin: Bryant finished with four assists. To go with his FIFTY SHOTS. How joyously absurd was Kobe on the final night of his NBA career? This joyously absurd: (It made Kanye West smile) (photo not posting) (GOOD ) https://www.yahoo.com/sports/blogs/...-60-in-final-game-to-beat-jazz-051906196.html
Dude. Am so happy for you. To have flown all the way from Germany to see Kobe for the first time in person in his last game ..... and have THAT happen!!!!
The stories in here are awesome, a random bar in Manhattan? Mumbai, India? Awesome stuff @wallangong @Mitch , @Kenzo late for or skipping work over in Poland? @DjBelvedere flying from Germany to see Kobe and get to see this game, amazing.
Thanks buddy. I was basically done with the hope of seeing Kobe live or if I do so to see some vintage Kobe. To have that happen ... this is a memory for life!