Apr 14, 2016

Pretty much the best night ever for me, can't even f---in believe it. Flat out incredible. Kobe in the last 3:15 of the game tonight was 5-5 with 15 points, hit the game winner too. d--- what a perfect way to go out.

I'll post a lot more tomorrow but I gotta leave for the airport in a little over 4 hours and gotta get some sleep, have to work tomorrow afternoon unfortunately.

Here's a view from my seat after the game:





100% worth the $930 I spent on the ticket and the $400 for hotel+flight+shuttle.

 

Apr 8, 2016

My favorite basketball player of all time is finally hanging it up next week. Use this thread to share pics, highlights, and your favorite memories of the man they call The Black Mamba.


Final Game - 4/13/2016
60 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 game winner

Magic Johnson & other NBA greats pay Tribute to Kobe

Final Introduction

Highlights

Post Game Speech

Presser

 

Apr 14, 2016

Yeah I'm sure you would have loved it of course, but hard to really blame ya. I mean I honestly felt like Utah was the worst possible opponent for Kobe's last game, they had completely shut him down in the other match ups this year and the Jazz as a team usually killed the Lakers this season as well. I would have thought 40 would be a huge long shot tonight, I would have considered 50 impossible and would have absolutely laughed at anybody even bringing up 60. No matter how you look at it, this just didn't seem possible tonight. I was pretty sure he'd s---t a lot but thought it'd be a very inefficient 5/25 type thing or maybe 8/25 or something. It's safe to say no one saw this coming especially how the game started. Kobe was 0-5 I believe, and later in the game he was completely gassed, somehow he still ended up shooting a pretty efficient 44%. I don't know he finished the job as well as he did.

I heard someone on twitter asking if this is bigger than the 81 point game, was kinda surprised to hear that but it very well might be more surprising at least. I mean Kobe was in his prime when he dropped 81 and had huge scoring performances even a few weeks before that, so it wasn't a shock. This year's Kobe has been banged up all year and has basically had trouble standing up/walking at times.

As the game went along tonight I thought it was actually possible they could win, and was getting crazy into it somehow hoping for a W(which I didn't expect at all before the game). A lot of the other Lakers had awesome plays tonight too, Clarkson had an awesome 360 dunk (Byron immediately took him out after this, me and people seated around me were laughing about that), Tarik Black had a huge block late in the game, Nance had some real athletic plays.

We were all jumping up and down and hugging/bonding with random strangers lol, everyone was having the time of their lives really. I just kept shaking my head in disbelief that it was happening, I had high expectations for tonight but this went way beyond them. There were cameras all over me and some others celebrating and bouncing around outside the arena afterwords lol, not sure what station it was for but may look for it tomorrow. The atmosphere was comparable to an NBA finals game which is just insane for a regular season game that technically meant nothing in terms of the standings.

Best finale for any player in any sport ever, and I really doubt anyone ever tops it. Of course leaving after a title would be better, but I mean as far as individual performances go.

 

Apr 14, 2016

Utah Jazz getting 2 GOATs retirement games.

MJ with 45 points and the game winning shot in game 6 of 1998 Finals
Kobe with 60 points. and game winner.

lol @ Jazz

 

Apr 12, 2016

What I just posted to my facebook if anyone cares lol, my Kobe story I guess you could say.


This is gonna be long...In 2002 my dad took me to a Lakers/Timberwolves game, I had lost interest in basketball for a year or so before this and wasn't really a fan. But on that day I became a Lakers fan because of Kobe Bryant and have been a Lakers and Kobe fan ever since. The Lakers lost on this night and Kobe didn't have his best game, but I saw how passionate he was and how he wouldn't give up, I didn't know I was becoming a fan at the time but I was intrigued enough to keep watching him for a bit. 14 years later and I've watched at least 90% of his games since then. On TV I watched him win championships, drop 81 points, outscore the mavs by himself through 3 quarters, have stretches where he's just absolutely on fire (ex:18/24 including 11 in a row, 42 in a half vs. MJ, etc). In person I've seen him hit a game winner in Milwaukee, drop 47 points in his last full game before he got injured and was never the same, maybe his best dunk ever, 8 playoff games (including an NBA finals game) and about 20 to 25 games overall. Once he's gone I doubt we ever see anyone else in the NBA with that competitive nature, toughness and killer instinct. I remember having tickets to a Lakers game a week away and Kobe messed up his shoulder pretty bad and was supposed to be out 4-6 weeks, I thought there was no chance he'd play in the game I saw. He missed a game or 2 and was back out there looking like his usual self, Kobe did this kind of stuff routinely throughout his career. Tomorrow night it all comes to an end and even though it took a majority of my tax refund, I wanted to and will be there live one more time. Basketball will never be the same to me and this will truly be a sad moment. Thank you Kobe for all your hard work and the great moments, it was an honor to watch you all these years.

 

Apr 8, 2016

Gonna go out on a limb and say nobody will EVER have a 17th season as good as Kobe did.

 

Apr 8, 2016

Here's a few to get it started.




Amnesty THAT game

 

Apr 8, 2016

It's crazy to think Kobe could have easily had 3 or 4 70+ point games if he had played the 4th quarter, maybe even 2 80+ games lol. Kobe was the greatest scorer I have ever seen, when he gets it going it's just absolutely ridiculous and not even great defense can stop him.

But to me at least it's the right thing to do in those situations, no need to play someone just for stats when the game has been decided. It's too risky and the season's too long for that, the coach would catch major s--- if a star player were to ever get hurt during something like that.

 

Apr 14, 2016

Started reading a long article that just got posted by slam magazine about why Kobe is the best ever, it's pretty interesting. What I've read so far (only about 1/3rd of it) gives a good argument that Kobe at least has the best work ethic ever, and is the most skilled player ever.

But I wanted to post this part I found about the game Kobe got 12 3's, I had no idea it was sparked by something a reporter said, very interesting.

Shaw recalls Kobe being told by a reporter from Seattle that his daughter thought Bryant was the game’s greatest player, but that he didn’t have a three-point game. She thought that was his only weakness. Shaw remembers the day clearly. “And he said to the reporter: ‘Oh, is that right?’ So after the reporters left he stayed in the gym and he just shot three after three after three after three. And the next night when we played the SuperSonics, he set the three-point record. He hit 12 threes.”


Seems to be a good article worth reading too, although I haven't finished it yet.

http://www.slamonline.com/the-magaz...t-interview-feature-slam/#TLe0zEDl9fiUmXZB.99

 

Apr 14, 2016

Made this pic earlier in honor of him

 

Apr 14, 2016

@LakerFam
the future

 

Apr 14, 2016

Im english so basketball isn't exactly huge here but i will always remember travelling to florida when i was 11 and watching my first basketball game on TV. Lakers versus someone (i can't remember) and i was hooked. Kobe Bryant was the only player that i thought was brilliant (i didn't understand the rules etc) so the next day my dad bought me a jersey with bryant 8 on the back....since then i have loved basketball.

 

Apr 14, 2016

 

Apr 14, 2016

Appreciate it man, thanks.

What's absolutely f---in insane to me is of the 20-25 or so Kobe games I've been at in my life, this was actually his best performance lol. If you would have told me that before the game, I'd have said you're completely insane.

 

Apr 14, 2016

The luckiest man on s80 on Mamba Day. So happy that you got to witness Kobe being Kobe for one final game.

 

Apr 14, 2016

@Kon you alive bro

 

Apr 14, 2016

 

Apr 14, 2016

60 and the win. Thank you Kobe.

 

Apr 13, 2016

 

Apr 13, 2016

Stat line looking like a @Narsh rap battle out here