With the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, the Charlotte Hornets select guard Kobe Bryant out of Lower Merion High School. Wait, what?
Obviously Kobe did not remain a Hornet for long. Shortly after being drafted, Bryant was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for Vlade Divac. It was one of the best draft trades of all time.
From the second he put on the purple and gold for the first time, he established himself as a leader, a workhorse, someone who knew what he was capable of and was not going to stop until he reached his full potential.
Twenty years later, on the biggest stage and under the brightest lights, Bryant thrived. He is third all-time in scoring behind Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He is the only player to record 30,000 points and 6,000 assists, and he leads the Los Angeles Lakers in almost every statistical category.
He brought five championships to the city of Los Angeles. He won three with Shaquille O’Neal and two with Pau Gasol. Although he has been successful for a large part of his professional career, however, everyone has not always revered him.
He has been scrutinized as impossible to work with and even so selfish that it has hurt the Lakers.
But through it all he has never wavered.He has never stopped betting on himself. The greatness that he brought to everyone far and beyond outweighs any of the negatives that the critics have to say.
“The Black Mamba” is what they called him, because obviously that is what they told everyone to call him. You do what the Mamba says. He earned that.
The past few seasons have been extremely tough for the Lakers and Bryant. Bryant suffered three serious injuries on the backend of his career. People did not know if he would be able to bounce back.
In 2013, he carried the Lakers single-handedly into the playoffs before he tore his Achilles late in the regular season. In 2014, after returning from the Achilles injury, he ended up breaking his kneecap, which kept him out the entirety of the season. Finally, in 2015, he suffered a rotator cuff injury, which limited him throughout the entire season.
“You can’t beat father time,” the oldest adage in the book. It seemed to be that Bryant was going to fall victim to father time, but he came back for the 2015-2016 season with a young team around him and announced 15 games into the season that this would be his last.
The season quickly turned into the Kobe Bryant farewell tour, deservingly so. He was a legend, and legends never die. The closest comparison to Bryant would have to be Derek Jeter. Jeter was under the brightest lights in the MLB and played for the same team for 20 years and won five championships.
Every team gave Bryant farewell gifts; fans from all over the world came to watch Bryant one last time. And on April 13, 2016, Bryant gave the city of Los Angeles one final show.
The last game of the regular season was the Los Angeles Lakers versus the Utah Jazz. It meant absolutely nothing; neither team was playoff-bound. Yet the Staples Center was buzzing like it was the NBA Finals, Game 7. Celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Jack Nicholson and Jay Z filled the stands to honor Bryant. Tributes by Magic Johnson, Derek Fisher and many more amplified throughout the stadium before, during and after the game. Every single person around the world had their eyes on No.24 waiting for him to put on a show.
And put on a show he did. Every time he touched the ball everyone urged him to shoot the ball, which is ironic because his entire career he was criticized for shooting too much. Bryant got his shots up as he went 22-50 on the game. He scored 17 of the Lakers’ final 19 points and somehow found a way to win the game with a team that had only mustered 15 wins all season.
O’Neal challenged Bryant to get 50 points. Kobe went out and got 60 for the fourth time in his career. Only three other players have dropped at least 60 that many times. It was possibly the greatest send-off any player has ever had.
Bryant walked away his way. He did it his way for 20 years, and brought so many great memories to fans across the globe for two decades.
“Last night was the final chapter to an incredible story,” said Bryant. “I walk away at peace knowing my love for the game and this city will never be broken.” Mamba out.
Ryan Calpin is a fourth-year student majoring in communication studies with a minor in journalism. Contact him at RC784188@wcupa.edu