Kobe Bryant Discussion: Mamba Out!

The song ESPN kept playing last night was actually fitting.

 

Yep, cannot emphasize enough how absolutely perfect this ending was for him. I think we, as laker fans, really needed to see him go out on this high of a note after seeing him suffer the last 3 years. Very, very satisfying finish.

Seeing him huff and puff violently, giving every ounce of energy, was literally like seeing an old legendary warrior fighting to the death in his last battle

 

It's funny how people say "nobody played defense on him"... I won't say the Jazz were the 2004 Pistons or something like that, but I think they actually played very decent defense.

If anything, I can understand detractors saying "he shot 50 shots!", because, well, yeah, 50 shots is a lot. I'll give them that. It took Kobe a lot of shots, but he did something that was simply out of this world... he's 37 years old. Kobe received a normal defense because, well, he wasn't 2006 Kobe, he was an injured old very experienced player. You can't leave Kobe alone, but you can't just go and double team him. Kobe played okay through most of the game carrying us (this time, I won't blame teammates because it was our plan for being his last game) but the Jazz were being better because they have a better team and where doing a good job on a Kobe that was the complete offense of the team... Who in the world would've expected Kobe to go completely nuts in that final quarter, especially those final 3 minutes where he just did everything, he made a 10 point deficit into a 5 point lead in no time. Everyone was talking about a "possible" 50 point game, and suddenly, about a minute afterwards he was suddenly aiming for 60.

Oh... yeah, and we kinda won the game, didn't we? We won the game with Kobe scoring 60% of our points, didn't we? We won the game with Kobe shooting 50 out of 85 shots from our team, didn't we? ISN'T EXACTLY THAT WHAT "CARRYING YOUR TEAM" IS? Kobe won the game by himself like he did many times in the past. Sure, he was less efficient, but he really, pretty much won the game by himself... being 37 years old, having played 20 seasons with more injuries that I can even remember... Now that's greatness. That's legendary, and absolutely unprecedented. He shot 50 times, so what? Lakers won, he took over and turned the tables on a game that was pretty much lost.

These have been some really tough years for Kobe where he hasn't been a shade of himself, but he retired in his own terms. He didn't go because of the Achilles. With this game he proved he was retiring because he WANTED.

 

What was awesome is seeing he and Shaq mend their relationship. I didn't expect him to come at all, but it made me really happy to see him cheer him on.

People focused so much on stats that they miss out on other aspects. Like their fundamentals, footwork, skill set, craft, instincts, drive and focus. Kobe is unmatched in those categories.

 

this x 100. the way he went out (on his own terms mind you) is really the only way i think i would have been ok today. it gave me such a lift. i feel so happy for him too and it was great to see that if wanted to keep playing he could, but its just that time.

 

You're lucky. I decided to start standing in line at that time ... and nice jersey. I got a lot of props for my MPLS jersey yesterday

I'm gonna upload some stuff when I'm back home!

 

So uhhhhh, where's his sweet spot? The whole court?

 

Someone made spoofs of the muppet commercials?

EDIT: NSFW - TIME

Spoiler

 

Look at how many behind the backboard lol

 

did anyone else get pumped at the screens Julius was setting for Kobe? he was setting screens like a tank. it's what we've wanted all year and last night he set those screens to get Kobe open with a purpose.

 

If it wasn't Kobe's last game, he would get called for a foul more than a few times. League is SOFT now .

 

kobes last make vs every team

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=15201392&ex_cid=sportscenterFB&sf24384926=1