Mamba Out After Historic Final Game

With the Los Angeles Lakers in the tank machine for another season, I told myself one thing -- I wouldn't watch Laker basketball this season. But with it being Kobe Bryant's final season, the player I grew up idolizing, it's been just as hard not to watch my favorite player in his final year as it's been hard to watch them suffer another disappointing season.

With the Lakers playing terribly to the sound of their worst record in franchise history (17-65) and Kobe in his farewell tour, this season was supposed to be about the young guys -- rookie DeAngelo Russell who was selected second overall in this year's Draft and last year's first round pick Julius Randle who is basically a rookie himself, having missed all of last season with a broken leg aside from playing just 14 minutes in the season-opener. And with both players getting their much needed playing time to get their feet wet and help their development in the league, everything was going as planned. And then the news broke of Russell secretly videotaping a discussion with Laker teammate Nick Young. The conversation which touched on the subject of Young hooking up with numerous women and cheating on his fiance Iggy Azalea soon made its way onto social media. What was meant to be a joke on Young evolved into a prank gone wrong, making matters worse and adding salt to the wound that's been the Lakers' season.

So when it came time for L.A.'s final game of the season on Wednesday, Laker fans were more than relieved that the nightmare season was finally coming to an end. And then we were forced to accept that it was the ending of an era and that the career of one of basketball's all-time greats was coming to a close. The last time we would see Kobe Bean Bryant take the court in a Laker uniform. What was being referred to as "Mamba Day" began bright and early in downtown L.A. as Laker fans flocked outside of Staples Center to show their respects to "the greatest Laker in franchise history" as Magic Johnson proclaimed. With tributes being made for Kobe all season long and gifts given from opposing teams since he announced his decision to hang 'em up back in November, nothing came close to what the home team did for their beloved superstar as video messages were played on the big screen all night long. And then came the game that needed to be played. With enough celebrities in attendance for it to be an award show, the pressure on Bryant coming into the game was insurmountable. And with an 0-for-5 start from the field for Kobe, the jitters showed early on. It would soon wear off, however, as Kobe put on a show and treated us all to a spectacle in a way that only he could.

Facing the Utah Jazz who were eliminated from playoff contention earlier in the day with a victory by the Houston Rockets who claimed the eighth and final seed, Utah didn't have a whole lot to play for aside from having the chance to sweep the season series versus the Lakers for their first time ever. Utah jumped out to an early lead and maintained control of the score for nearly the entire game until the Black Mamba rose to the occasion and took over late in the fourth quarter like he's done so often in his memorable 20 year career. During a timeout discussion with former teammate Shaquille O'Neal, Shaq challenged Bryant to go out by scoring 50-points. Kobe would do him one better by scoring 60. Trailing by as many as 10 points with just over 2 minutes remaining, Kobe outscored the Jazz 23-21 in the fourth quarter including 13 unanswered while making a series of tough shots both in and outside of the three-point arch. While it was Kobe who stole the show and went on to score the most points in NBA history by a player in his final regular season game, the most important part of all for Bryant is that he did it in a winning effort as the Lakers prevailed, 101-96. As we've learned over the years, Bryant isn't one who takes losing lightly and that hasn't changed one bit over the course of his 20 year career.

Kobe shot 22 for 50 from the floor and became just the fourth player to ever attempt 50 field goals in a game. Say what you want about him taking the amount of shots he took, but understand that this one was for the fans who were forced to pay for tickets three and four times more than face value to sit in the nosebleeds if they wanted to see the iconic player in person one last time. Not to mention his teammates fed him the ball on just about every possession and encouraged him to shoot the ball. And even then, Kobe didn't disappoint, giving his supporters one last performance worth celebrating and putting an exclamation point on the storybook ending to the career of one of the game's all-time greats. A performance that had to have made the late Dr. Jerry Buss smile from the heavens above. Just to put his remarkable night into perspective, no Hall of Fame player had even scored 30-points in their final regular season game. Kobe who will undoubtedly join them and is a future Hall of Famer himself, scored twice that mark. It would be the sixth 60-point performance in his illustrious career and his first in over seven years.

With the future of the franchise unsure at this point moving forward, it's worth noting that a new era of Lakers basketball is on the horizon with Kobe out the door. With a chance to better their squad and help make the recovery from this rebuilding mode a bit easier heading into June's Draft, the Lakers will be in on just about every major free-agent on the market. But nailing the Draft is what's most important of all as Los Angeles will enter June's Draft with a top-three protected pick which will likely be used to select one of either LSU's Ben Simmons, Duke's Brandon Engram or Oklahoma's Buddy Heild. That's if they don't fall out of the top 3 spots or trade the pick. While Kobe's playing career comes to a close, his legacy will live on forever and his impact as a basketball icon and a global ambassador for the game will never fade. Bryant, a 5-time NBA Champion and former league MVP, is the Michael Jordan of his era and is the reason many players in the league today play the game of basketball. No one player made the game an international phenomenon quite like Bryant has and his name and number will be seen adorned L.A.'s Staples Center for many years to come as they sold a reported $1.2 Million worth of Kobe Bryant merchandise on Wednesday, a single-day record for any arena.


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