The late great Kobe Bryant left Los Angeles Lakers fans with countless memories that will last a lifetime. Those memories include satisfying team accomplishments, incredible individual feats and overcoming seemingly suffocating adversity, among other things.
Magic Johnson, a fellow Lakers great, recently did a Los Angeles Dodgers All-Access event, and even though he is a part-owner of the defending World Series champions, he was asked some Lakers-related questions. One question he was asked was what his favorite memory of Bryant is, and he gave one main answer, although one other moment got an honorable mention.
Via Lakers Nation:
“Where do we start? Is it the 81 points? I would say my favorite was the last game,” Johnson told the crowd of Dodgers fans. “Hurt, not all the way there, remember the Achilles, and so if you were there or watching it on TV, the second half, the whole crowd did not sit down. Remember? And he kept scoring and scoring. And we kept going crazy and crazier. And it got louder. We said, ‘Man, he got to 50? Kobe scored 50?’ And he kept going! I’ve never seen a guy end his career in the fashion that Kobe ended his career that last game.
“I think I’m going to always remember that one. That is the game that I will always remember. And then the other one was probably Portland. When there was supposed to be the ‘Kobe Stopper.’ Some guy named himself that, Ruben Patterson was his name, or something like that. And Kobe ended the game in regulation with a 3 to tie it. And remember, he ended the overtime with a 3 to win it. When we were down two, he hit the 3. I mean, man, I could go Kobe stories for a lifetime. This man, he was just so sensational. Just had a different mindset. He was always pushing himself and his teammates to be better and better and better. He came to Los Angeles when we needed him to come. We had that transition of about four years we weren’t very good, and then we drafted this 18-year-old guy and put him with Shaq, and the rest was history.”
When Bryant played the final game of his 20-year NBA career in 2016, Staples Center (now known as Crypto.com Arena) was turned into a massive love fest for the five-time world champion. How he performed in that actual game versus the Utah Jazz started out as an afterthought, but as it progressed, he started to pile on the points.
Los Angeles was down 96-86 with just 2:16 left in the fourth quarter when Bryant went into “Black Mamba” mode one last time. He scored all 13 of the team’s points the rest of the way and led it to a victory, making that final performance a complete and triumphant one. It was a literal “drop the mic” moment for one of the greatest athletes and winners in the history of sports.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Magic Johnson gives his favorite memory of Kobe Bryant
