Kobe Bryant played his last professional basketball game. The guard showed a great performance and helped his team – Los Angeles Lakers win against Utah 101-96. The 37-year-old legend scored 60 points! The veteran stayed on the court for 42 minutes in “Staples Center”. He looked as motivated as in his debut in The NBA.
The instructions of the head coach Byron Scott were very simple – ‘Pass the ball to Kobe!’ However, this season was the worst in LA’s history (17 victories and 65 defeats), but the fans could be glad with the performance in the very last match of the season.
So, Kobe Bryant can remember his last match in The NBA with the impressive number of 60 points for just 42 minutes. On the floor were depicted the two numbers that Kobe was wearing for the Lakers (№8 and №24). He scored 16/29 shootings for 2 points, 6/21 for three points and 10/12 from the line. Kobe also made 4 assists and 4 rebounds.
Another club legend in the face of Magic Johnson gave a speech devoted to Bryant before the game, calling him the biggest and greatest celebrity of LA in the last 20 years, and then added that Kobe was the greatest player, to wear the Lakers’ shirt. For 20 seasons at the City of the Angels, the guard from Philadelphia won five NBA titles, and in two cases was the MVP of the finals. He was once voted for the MVP of the regular season, 18 times was selected to participate in the All-Star Game. Kobe Bryant became the top scorer of the league twice, and he is also the leader in a number of statistical charts of the team.
That match was the first with 50 or more points for the legend since February 2009 onwards, and the Lakers were able to win the match, after being down by 15 points. Kobe Bryant scored 23 out of his 60 points in the fourth quarter of the game, but the beginning was not the best for him, after the first 12 minutes he failed to score any of the five shoots.
№24 scored a three-pointer 59 seconds before the final siren, and then repeated the exercise 31 seconds before the end, giving his favourite team a lead of 97-96. The end finally came with an assist, and 4.1 seconds before the final siren Kobe went out of the game, this time forever.