But that first means nothing. “I can guarantee you he’s going to go for the MVP”.
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“The party scene is great in Toronto”.
Bryant’s career-high 81 points in a 2006 victory over Toronto remains the second-highest one-game total in National Basketball Association history, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 in a 1962 contest.
“We just kind of laughed for 15 minutes”, Powell said after a relaxed World team practice at Ricoh Coliseum.
“This is his weekend”, Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony said. “It’s his last hurrah”. James and Wade are each playing in their 12th consecutive All-Star games and James’ 12th start ties Hall of Famer Bob Cousy and San Antonio center Tim Duncan for fourth place in All-Star starts. ‘For 20 years of being an elite basketball player.
“No, man, zero”, Bryant said. How many players can say they played 20 years and have actually seen the game go through three, four generations? I grew up watching him. In that sense, Toronto has a firmer connection with Kobe than, say, Michael Jordan, who only had a half-dozen peak years left. They teamed to win two championships with the Lakers.
“He reminded me of the mornings at 6 a.m. here in Toronto when it’s blizzarding outside and he would come pick me up and we’d go to practice”. And then he promptly retired from celebrity games, or so he said. Although that part has been long forgiven and totally understood.
The 37-year-old American, who last November announced he would retire after this season, was the top vote-getter with 1.9 million ballots from fans worldwide for the annual mid-season showdown between Eastern and Western conference talent.
“You see what he’s done for the game”. There’s a lot to appreciate it. So no, I’m not sad; it’s time to move on.
“I remember being in All-Star games and Gary Payton being extremely open with me… So if you know, let the world know and let them know”. Some are exceptions: Magic Johnson in 1992 after his HIV announcement being the most pronounced. “Kobe is decisive when it comes to his game”. It was the Passing the Torch game, meaningful for that and other reasons.
Just getting within earshot of the 18-time All-Star was a coup. The setting was NY and the arena was the Garden.
Bryant admitted he still laments the Lakers losing in the 2004 NBA Finals to Detroit and 2008 NBA Finals to Boston.
It won’t be Anthony Davis.
“We definitely want to send him off on a good note”, Durant said. A lot of people should celebrate him for that. “Obviously, along with Shaq (O’Neal), that Laker team denied me from the ultimate goal in winning a championship”. Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan said, “I patterned my game after him” as a kid in California. “I had Derek Fisher”. I always believed I could come back, but you never know.
The Pelicans star was asked his take on the National Basketball Association someday expanding to London – “That would be a long flight”, he said, though he approved of the growth of the game overseas – and about foreign players from Giannis Antetokounmpo to Kristaps Porzingis.
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“Yeah, I can’t believe I’m still playing”, he said. “I’m pretty sure the other guys that’s participating and the National Basketball Association know that”. After 19-plus years and three surgeries of late, Kobe is an All-Star once again and isn’t taking it for granted. “No, when you’re young, you never think you’ll get old”. “Time has a amusing way of doing that”. Kobe taught it well.
