In his final game, Kobe Bryant left it all on the floor.
It was perfect, and we wouldn’t have asked for it to go any differently.
Bryant scored 60 points. He took 50 shots and made 22 of them. He had 22 points at halftime on 20 shots. Oh, and the Lakers defeated the Jazz.
On the same night that the NBA witnessed history with Golden State’s 73rd win, Kobe somehow managed to outshine it in a regular season finale to the worst year in Lakers history and the worst statistical season of his career.
We knew that with nothing on the line, Kobe would have his shots. But he’s shot a career-worst 35 percent this season. The shots wouldn’t necessarily mean that he was going to put up points. Yet, this was Kobe Bryant, and even as his performance declined with age, he reminded us all Wednesday night exactly why he’s one of the all-time greats.
He reminded us with clutch shot …
After clutch shot.
In his final game, he scored the most points out of any player this NBA season. Go figure, right?
No Hall of Famer had scored more than 30 points in a career finale … until Kobe.
It was the perfect ending for Bryant. In 48 minutes, he erased every memory of 2015’s struggles. We won’t remember 17-65 (yikes, so bad), we’ll remember 60 points.
Nobody expected it, but we’re so glad it happened.
“Mamba out.”
