LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant is down to one last shot, and everybody knows he’s going to take it.
After two decades spent dazzling the world, Bryant will end his basketball career at home with the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night. He’ll walk off the court in front of his devoted fans in the building where he hung five championship banners.
He retires this week as the third-leading scorer in league history. Nobody ever got to spend 20 seasons with one NBA team before the 37-year-old Bryant, and he intends to thank Los Angeles with one last display of his transcendent talent.
“It means everything” to finish at home, Bryant said.
RELATED:
“I grew up a die-hard Laker fan, so it’s like a dream come true for a kid to grow up and play for his favorite team, and play here for 20 years, his entire career,” he added. “I’ve seen the city grow. I’ve seen the city develop, and vice versa. There’s no place I’d rather end my career.”
Tickets are reselling for hefty sums, and merchandise commemorating the day is moving briskly. Fans without seats will gather downtown to show love for Bryant, a globally admired athlete who both fearlessly represented and strongly resembled LA.
Flashy. Confident. Clever. Combative. Bursting with ambition.
And always entertaining.
“I’ve grown up in front of this crowd from the age of 17,” Bryant said. “A lot of faces that I saw in the crowd in my very first game are still here. That’s very special. Kids that are sitting there now, that were kids when I first came in, now come to the game with their kids. You know, that’s pretty cool to see.”
While Bryant’s fellow Nike athletes around the globe wear shoes honoring the event they’ve dubbed “Mamba Day,” the Lakers will attempt to send Bryant out in style against the Utah Jazz, who could be eliminated from the playoff race shortly before tipoff.
Coach Byron Scott expects Bryant to play more than 37 minutes, and Kobe’s teammates will be feeding the ball to him on practically every possession — admittedly not much of a change from most games during this otherwise horrific season.
With two 30-point performances this month, Bryant has proven he’s still capable. He’ll have every opportunity to run up the score one last time.
“I think it’s going to be crazy,” Scott said. “We got a chance to celebrate one of the greatest to ever play the game this season, and I think we did it the right way.”
Although some things went very wrong, they turned out all right for Kobe.
Bryant said last week that every season is a failure unless it ends with a title. The 15th such failure of his career has been comically bad, yet the ineptitude of the worst team in Lakers history (16-65) actually has made it easier to enjoy his farewell tour.
“We’re not playing for a championship, and I’m pretty black-and-white on where I stand with that sort of stuff,” Bryant said. “I’ve allowed myself to take the blinders off and enjoy the fans, enjoy the crowd. Laugh a little bit more. Engage a little bit more.”
Indeed, the Lakers’ recent games effectively have been tribute evenings for Bryant, with opponents shaking his hand and lining up for turns to guard a player who profoundly inspired most of the current NBA.
“It is hard to be great for that long,” said Miami’s Dwyane Wade, his U.S. Olympic teammate. “He has been great for maybe 19 out of 20 years. To do it at that level for so many years, with guys coming after you, I have a tremendous amount of respect for that. He’s had a lot of injuries along the way, and he just came back stronger and stronger.”
When Bryant was asked to name his greatest basketball accomplishment Monday, he didn’t cite his rings. Instead, he chose his ability to find the motivation to return from three consecutive season-ending injuries from 2013-15.
Bryant hasn’t had a major health setback this season, although he sat out 16 games, constantly iced his joints, rarely practiced and hardly ever attended morning shootarounds.
He reached the finish line on his feet.
“He didn’t take nights off,” Scott said. “I think his competitive nature and the way he went about his business gained him a lot of respect around the world.”
Scott calls Bryant’s farewell tour “much-deserved and much-needed.” He has even fantasized about the perfect walk-away moment for Bryant: A patented fallaway jumper in the final seconds of a tied game.
“I would love for that to be the ending of the story,” Scott said.
Bryant knows he can’t have an ideal finish because he isn’t playing for a championship in his final game. He won’t join Peyton Manning, Joe DiMaggio, Bill Russell, John Elway, Ray Bourque, David Robinson, John Wooden or the other sports icons who ended their careers at the pinnacle.
Instead, Bryant’s finale is the conclusion of a 20-year competition with himself.
One last time, Kobe just wants to play.
“For me, it’s coming out in front of the fans and competing hard, and playing against Utah and them not taking it easy at all,” Bryant said. “To me, that is the greatest form of competition. That’s the best last game to have. A very competitive one. A physical one. That’s the way basketball should be.”
12 remarkable Kobe Bryant moments
Kobe Bryant has created a wealth of memories, overcome a host of setbacks and reached a multitude of milestones during his 20-year NBA career, which ends Wednesday night at Staples Center. Here are 12 key moments in the life of a five-time champion and 18-time All-Star:
July 1, 1996
Los Angeles Lakers general manager Jerry West boldly trades his starting center, Vlade Divac, to the Charlotte Hornets for Bryant, a 17-year-old prodigy from the Philadelphia suburbs by way of Italy. Nearly two decades later, Bryant has become the top scorer in the history of the 16-time NBA champion franchise, which happened to be his favorite team growing up.
May 12, 1997
As a rookie, Bryant badly misses four shots in the final moments of a playoff loss to the Utah Jazz, ending the Lakers’ season. When the team returned to Los Angeles that night, Bryant went to a suburban gym and worked on his shot until dawn. Today, he says the Airball Game was a turning point in his ability to handle negativity and self-doubt with hard work.
June 19, 2000
Bryant has 26 points and 10 rebounds against the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, teaming with Shaquille O’Neal and coach Phil Jackson to lead the Lakers to their first championship together. They won it all in each of the next two seasons as well, establishing the first dynasty of the 21st century.
June 2, 2002
Bryant scores 30 points in the Lakers’ 112-106 overtime victory over the Sacramento Kings in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, ending one of the greatest playoff series in NBA history. The Lakers swept New Jersey to win their third straight title in the anticlimactic NBA Finals.
July 18, 2003
Bryant is charged with sexual assault by the Eagle County District Attorney’s office in Colorado. Bryant said the sex with a 19-year-old hotel employee was consensual, but his public image and most of his endorsement deals were shattered by his arrest. During the Lakers’ run to the 2004 NBA Finals, Bryant occasionally flew daily between his pretrial hearings and the Lakers’ postseason games. The charges were dismissed in September 2004 after his accuser decided she was unwilling to testify.
Jan. 22, 2006
An ordinary Sunday home game in a mediocre Lakers season turns into magic when Bryant goes off for 81 points, the second-highest total in NBA history. He mostly did it on jumpers in a close game, hitting seven 3-pointers while going 28 for 46 from the field and 18 for 20 from the line. Sure, he only had two assists. Not a soul at Staples Center cared.
Feb. 1, 2008
Los Angeles acquires Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies in a heist of a trade that swiftly ended a frustrating four-year stretch for Bryant, who repeatedly flirted with leaving the Lakers – even nearly for the neighboring Clippers. Instead, with the star Spanish 7-footer at his side, Bryant led the Lakers to the next three NBA Finals and won two more championships.
Aug. 24, 2008
Bryant scores 13 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and wins his first Olympic gold medal as the United States defeats Spain 118-107 in Beijing. After missing the previous two Olympics, Bryant proved to be an excellent international player, and he added another gold medal to his collection four years later in London.
Feb. 1, 2010
Bryant scores 44 points against the Memphis Grizzlies and passes West to become the leading scorer in Lakers history. The franchise has a glossy history of talent from George Mikan and Elgin Baylor to Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal, but nobody played more seasons or scored more points in purple and gold than Bryant.
June 17, 2010
Bryant scores 23 points on 6-for-24 shooting as the Lakers rally to beat the Boston Celtics 83-79 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, securing the 31-year-old’s fifth championship ring. He still calls it the sweetest title of his career for multiple reasons, including the Lakers-Celtics rivalry and the difficulties faced in repeating after their 2009 championship. He celebrates by jumping on the scorers’ table at Staples Center in a now-iconic pose.
April 12, 2013
The Lakers’ season began with enormous expectations after the acquisition of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, but quickly descended into farce. Bryant was carrying the Lakers toward the playoffs while playing more than 40 minutes per game before he tore his Achilles tendon in this game against Golden State. Incredibly, Bryant still shot his ensuing free throws in front of fans who didn’t realize what had happened. Once seemingly impervious to physical woes, Bryant was never the same. Three straight seasons ended early due to injury.
April 13, 2016
The third-leading scorer in NBA history is scheduled to play his 1,346th and final regular-season game at home against the Jazz. The Lakers are wrapping up the worst three-year stretch in franchise annals, but his fans throughout the world will pause for one last tribute.
Kobe by the numbers
1 — NBA MVP award given to Bryant. The Lakers’ 2008 winner finished second in the voting once and came in third three times.
2 — Olympic gold medals for Bryant.
3 — Bryant’s ranking on the NBA’s career scoring list. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) and Karl Malone (36,928) scored more points. Bryant (33,583) passed Michael Jordan (32,292) in December 2014.
5 — Championship rings for Bryant. Only four players in NBA history not on the Celtics’ 1960s dynasty teams have more.
10 — Lakers head coaches during Bryant’s two decades. Phil Jackson was on the bench for 11 seasons and all five titles.
11 — All-NBA first-team selections for Bryant.
18 — All-Star Game selections, including every season except his rookie year and the lockout-shortened 1999 campaign.
20 — NBA seasons for Bryant, and the most ever played with one team. He is just the fifth player to last at least two full decades, joining Abdul-Jabbar (20 with the Bucks and Lakers), Robert Parish (21 with the Warriors, Celtics, Hornets and Bulls), Kevin Willis (21 with the Hawks, Heat, Warriors, Rockets, Raptors, Nuggets and Kings) and Kevin Garnett (21 with the Timberwolves, Celtics and Nets).
81 — Points scored by Bryant against the Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006. It’s the second-highest-scoring performance in NBA history.
9,999 — Free throws shot by Bryant, fifth most in NBA history.
