Everybody has a favorite Kobe story. Whether you knew Kobe Bryant personally or not, you remember where you were when he won his first NBA championship in 2000. Or maybe you don’t actually remember, but you have told people that you do. The late Lakers star was simply a larger-than-life personality who became synonymous with grit, hard work, and success.
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So much so that even now, years after his death, whenever people meet one of Kobe’s teammates or heroes or friends or family, they ask for, nay, demand their ‘favorite Kobe story’. And that is exactly what recently happened to basketball legend Magic Johnson.
Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner, Johnson, found himself at the Dodger Stadium during an all-access event, where he answered questions about parking lot traffic to his top 5 Lakers of all time. More importantly, though, he obliged the young fan who asked him for his favorite Kobe story.
“Where do we start? Is it the 81 points? I would say, the favorite was the last game,” Johnson poignantly revealed. Kobe has famously been a bit out of sorts since tearing his Achilles tendon in 2013, and it had been kind of bothering him. But the fact that it was his last game meant so much to fans that Johnson recalls watching those at Staples Center not sit down even once during the 2nd half of the game!
“And he kept scoring and scoring, and we kept going crazy, crazier and it got louder and we said, ‘Man, you got to 50.’ We said, ‘No, Kobe’s scoring 50? No.’ And he kept going,” Johnson reminisced about the April 13, 2016, matchup.
“I think I have never seen a guy end his career in the fashion that Kobe ended his career. That was his last game. I think I will always remember that one. That was the game that I will always remember,” he added, saying that his other favorite story was probably the Portland game, where he scored 65 points en route to a 116-111 victory.
The hype around the game was around Ruben Patterson, who had gone on to name himself the ‘Kobe Stopper.’ “And Kobe ended the game regulation with 3 to tie it … He ended the overtime a 3 to win it. When we were down 2, he hit the 3,” recalled the NBA Hall of Famer.
Magic told the fans that he has Kobe stories he could go on telling about for a lifetime. Johnson further praised Kobe by calling him sensational and in possession of a different mindset that allowed him to push himself and his teammates to be better.
“He came to LA when we needed him … We drafted this 18-year-old guy and put him with Shaq and the rest was history. I think if they had played 7-8 more years, they probably would have won another 5-6 championships. They won 3 in a row,” Magic asserted.
Not being able to watch what Kobe and Shaq could’ve accomplished is something not only every Laker fan thinks about, but also the rest of the basketball world.
Mamba, in his 20-year NBA career, gave us memories for a lifetime. Everyone has their favorite Kobe moment, and more often than not, it has a deeper meaning attached to it. Even though Kobe is gone, his Mamba Mentality stays with us and guides us towards excellence everyday.
