I decided to watch the Kobe farewell spectacle since we clinched the 5th seed. This season with him has been a joke which I've thought was beyond ridiculous. But I was interested in the epic media, fan, celebrity coverage and unusual attention this game was going to have.
Kobe is a shell of his old self. He's slower than Joe Ingles. He can't jump over his own shoes. He shoots worse than Josh Smith. The guy is totally washed up. He's been worse than the Shaq who averaged 9ppg his final year. Much worse than the Jordan who scored 15 points on 15 shots in his final game losing by 20 to the 76ers. Kobe has been the worst player in the NBA this season; and its not even close. That's why Kobe announced his retirement after playing us; he's an embarrassment of a basketball player, and has been since he tore his Achilles 3 years ago. This is what he looks like after playing 9 minutes:
That's what made last night so unfuckingbelievable.
Everyone in the building wanted Kobe to shoot. The Jazz forced him into difficult contested 3's. Kobe missed his first 5 shots. The viewers on TV like me and I imagine everyone in the arena had no idea what was to come. Would he miss all of his first 10 shots? Could he go 2 for 20? This could've ended real badly. It could be one of the all time most embarrassing games in the history of sports.
But Kobe ended up making a run of shots after those 5 misses. He was taking the ball to the rim successfully. The Jazz had a comfortable 10-15 point lead for almost the entire game. Kobe started making a few more shots towards the end of the 1st. He sat out 6 minutes in the second quarter but had some nice buckets to end the half with 20. Everyone was shocked he had scored that much and glad that he could finish a game with maybe 30 points. At least he wouldn't go out as an embarrassment.
In the second half he continued to score. The Jazz continued to score a bit more. With a few minutes left in the game the Jazz decided to double team him way out on the perimeter. He found an open cutter for an easy layup. He kept making real difficult shots. The Jazz were up enough they should certainly win and tensed up. Then Kobe hit a 3, the crowd goes nuts. He hits a jumper, the crowd goes nuts. He drives and hits a floater, the crowd goes nuts. I've never seen anything like it. He just kept scoring, he was splitting double teams and driving to the hole like our young CJ McCollum. Kobe hits 40 points, 50 points, gets the Lakers the lead, then hits 60. Just unbelievable.
He played 42 minutes. The guy who had to be wrapped up in all those ice packs pictured above after playing 9 minutes was able to play 42 minutes. Yeah he took 50 shots; but he got 60 points doing it; no way I would've ever imagined he was capable of such efficiency on that volume. A prime Michael Jordan in 1993 took 1 less shot and got 4 more points. That was the best basketball player of all time at his peak! This was a 37 year old shell of his old self. Last night was one of the most amazing games I've ever watched in my 25 years of following the NBA. I've always hated Kobe his entire career, but for one night at the end I was a Kobe fan.
