Kobe Bryant’s final game was a legendary performance that will be shared perennially.
Kobe Bryant entered this campaign knowing it would be his last.
It was November 29, 2015, a day after the season opener, when he published a poem in the Players’ Tribune about his journey in basketball and it coming to an end.
“You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream
And I’ll always love you for it.
But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer.
This season is all I have left to give.
My heart can take the pounding
My mind can handle the grind
But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.And that’s OK.
I’m ready to let you go.
I want you to know now
So we both can savor every moment we have left together.
The good and the bad.
We have given each other
All that we have.”
In addition, he tried to play his best every game as well as (and this is more important because he always plays his heart out) trying to play every game.
He played a total of 66 games and put up some great performances where he dropped 30-plus points.
However, there was only one game this season that could be classified as masterful and it was his final one.
Kobe Bryant’s Final Game
The Lakers were entering this match-up as the second-worst team in the league -they had a total of only 17 wins, just beating out the tanking Philadelphia 76ers who had 10 victories.
Thus, beating the Utah Jazz –Kobe’s final opponent- wouldn’t have done anything for them. But Kobe wanted to go out on a victory and wanted to put up a memorable last show for the fans.
So, Kobe did what he did best –he stepped onto the hardwood and played basketball.
He poured his soul out onto the court that night. He played nearly the entire game (42 minutes) and took more than half of the shots (50 field goals).
Kobe put his team on his shoulders and carried them to the victory line with 60 points (the most in any player’s final game) on 44 percent shooting. He also sprinkled in 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.
When the final buzzer went off, the Lakers had put up 101 points while the Jazz had 96.
This would be one of Kobe’s best games ever and one of the greatest final game performances in NBA history.
Some of the other performances include Michael Jordan’s final game with the Chicago Bulls in 1998, where he led them to win the title against the Jazz; Dirk Nowitzki’s last (couple of) game(s) with the Dallas Mavericks in 2019, where he put up a scoring clinic; and Dwyane Wade’s final game with the Miami Heat, where he put up a triple-double with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.
Final Thoughts
Prior to the start of the 2015-16 NBA season, Kobe was dealing with injuries.
He had pretty much sat out the previous two seasons, only playing a total of 41 games.
So, for him to not only play the majority of this season but to also put up that type of performance in his final game is remarkable.
Kobe Bryant truly is a legend of basketball.
