Certainly, in this post-Michael Jordan era, he may have been at the top.
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“The respect has always been there and I think it’s grown ever more so as we’ve gone on these last two years”, Scott said.
Before that happens, Bryant will do something that has become so customary for two decades.
The latter of course, is the period in which Scott has coached Bryant. Phil Jackson was on the bench for 11 seasons and all five titles.
Ticket prices for Wednesday’s game are up 89% from last year’s final Lakers home game, according to StubHub. When the team returned to Los Angeles that night, Bryant went to a suburban gym and worked on his shot until dawn.
Bryant was selected 13th overall by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1996 NBA Draft but they were picking for the Lakers in a deal made before the draft, center Vlade Divac going to Charlotte in exchange for Bryant. Bryant was eager to join his favorite team, and he got general manager Jerry West’s attention with dominant performances in pre-draft workouts. He shares the National Basketball Association record with four All-Star Game MVP selections. Only one of them – Kobe – was still playing this season. The record was the Compton rapper’s fourth full-length release, following on from last year’s “To Pimp A Butterfly”, which was picked as NME’s second favourite album of 2015.
Bryant scored 13 points in only 19 minutes of play as the Thunder crushed the Lakers 112-79. Other players in similar positions – fellow future Hall of Famers like Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki – have done the opposite, and will be in the playoffs this year because of it. “A physical one. That’s the way basketball should be”. I don’t care about that stuff. Young and rebuilding, it has lost 65 games, the most in its 68-year franchise history. “We were down 30 points”.
166 The number of technical fouls accumulated by Bryant. Remained unbeaten this season when Westbrook gets a triple-double. He hasn’t received one in his final season.
Bryant averaged just 27 minutes per game this season, and at some point there is only so much the old man can handle, as evidenced by his sideline Michelin Man impressions.
1,499 Bryant’s career offensive rebounds heading into the finale.
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In the extinguishing embers of a career that burned bright, he had one more show for the road.
