On this date: Kobe Bryant ends his career with a bang
When Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles in April 2013, his career was doomed, and so were his Los Angeles Lakers.
He returned the following season, only to suffer a lateral tibial plateau fracture in his left knee after just six games and miss the balance of the schedule.
Bryant then tore his rotator cuff in his shoulder midway through the 2014-15 season and was sidelined the rest of the way.
By the 2015-16 campaign, it was clear that he was a very faint shadow of the player he used to be, and he announced in late November that it would be his final season.
For the rest of the year, Bryant received an outpouring of love in every opposing arena that he had never even come close to experiencing.
But he wanted to leave fans with one last great impression, one last dose of what made him the greatest player of his generation and one of the greatest competitors and winners in the history of all sports.
On April 13, 2016, Bryant suited up for the final time in the Lakers’ regular season finale versus the Utah Jazz.
It was supposed to be a formality – Bryant would take a ton of shots, miss most of them, the Lakers would lose their 66th contest of the season and the occasion would merely be a celebration of his life and career.
Instead, the Black Mamba turned it into one of his greatest performances ever.
Against Utah, he got off to a bad start shooting-wise, and through three quarters, L.A. was down 75-66.
With 3:20 remaining in the final frame, the Lakers still trailed by 10, and it looked like curtains for them, their season and for Bryant, who, to that point, was just 17-of-45 from the field.
But he provided one last highlight that served as an example of what made him great.
Bryant made his last five field-goal attempts, finishing with 60 points on a solid 22-of-50 from the field and 10-of-12 from the free-throw line, and the Lakers won, 101-96.
It was a Hollywood ending for a player who embodied the qualities of show business that no one outside of the Southland ever talks about or even acknowledges – hard work, perseverance, toughness, sacrifice, resourcefulness and stubbornness, just to name a few.
Bryant’s final game wasn’t luck. It wasn’t self-indulgence. It wasn’t even a Jazz team that was eliminated from playoff contention laying down and allowing Bryant to trample all over them.
It was greatness personified, and a memory no one will ever forget.
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