Bryant on Sunday before the Lakers faced the Indania Pacers announced that this would be in fact his last National Basketball Association season.
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Fans take a selfie of Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers prior to the game against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dear Kobe The 76ers paid tribute to the homecoming king with a short video tribute, which played before the game. The move fell through when Jordan was sacked a year before Bryant entered free agency, and he made a decision to stay a Laker.
Downer and Julius Erving were part of the pregame ceremony, handing Bryant a Lower Merion jersey. Bryant racked up 13 first-quarter points, but he shot just 2-of-16 through the final three periods, adding just seven more points to his total.
With the crowd standing and roaring in appreciation, Bryant was lauded as a hometown hero.
Bryant scored a season-high 31 points on 10 of 24 shooting in 36 minutes to lead the struggling Lakers to their first victory in eight games.
The 76ers said good riddance to the longest losing streak in major US professional sports – winless in 28 games, dating to last season.
It was a much tighter game in the second half, but once again the Wizards were doing the Lakers a huge favor by committing costly, live-ball giveaways, finishing the contest with 23 turnovers resulting into 33 points on the other side for L.A.
Kobe seemed to feed off of this energy once the game started, which was evident when he shot the first four shots for the Los Angeles Lakers, all of which were 3-pointers, hitting three of them, and also hit another 2-pointer to score the first 11 points for the Lakers.
“In high school I wore a nappy-ass Afro because of Kobe Bryant”.
Bryant was the top scorer for the Lakers, producing 20 points, two assists and five rebounds.
Wall at one point scored 12 straight fourth-quarter points for Washington, but on the next possession his errant pass was stolen by Lou Williams. “I would never whine, ‘Oh, you’re being too hard on me, please stop.’ That wouldn’t even sound like me”.
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The Brooklyn Nets wrapped up a fourth home win in a row after edging out the Phoenix Suns 94-91, while the Dallas Mavericks ran out 115-112 overtime winners against the Portland Trail Blazers.
