He asked Clay Moser, who was handling analytics for the team and later became a full-time assistant coach, if he thought the team could send off Bryant the right way and Bryant could score 30 points. “It just adds to his legacy of greatness even more,” Madsen said of what was to come.īefore the Lakers tipped off with the Jazz, longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak stood in the tunnel to the team’s locker room. Jay-Z dribbled through the back hallways on his way to Staples Center’s subterranean parking lot.īefore the game they watched a pair of tribute videos and listened to Magic Johnson call Bryant the greatest to wear “the purple and gold.” Then, after they roared upon hearing Bryant announced as a starter, they promptly watched him miss his first five shots.īut he wouldn’t let his story end that way. Kanye West eventually got into the Lakers’ locker room. Referee Monty McCutchen had another fan in the front row heckling his first whistle and he turned around to see rock star Adam Levine. If you were on the Lakers and you wanted to check into the game, you had to step over Shaquille O’Neal’s size 23s as the Hall of Famer sat courtside.
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By walking away, he managed to bring the Lakers back to the top at the end of a 17-win season, creating an event worthy of the Lakers and Los Angeles, one with stars scattered throughout the stands. He arrived at the building in all-black outfit - suit, shirt and tie - as he slithered to the locker room with a swarm of cameras following his every step. This was going to be a circus - so if a championship was off the table, an epic performance would be the best he could give. He had one last game to create one more moment, the Lakers long eliminated from the playoffs and again headed into the draft lottery, meaning Bryant would walk into the building knowing he’d never be back as a player.Īfter briefly flirting with the idea that his last game would be “normal,” Bryant gave in to the inevitable. There were some truly awful games on the way to the finish line, the Lakers losing 10 of 11 while Bryant’s field-goal percentage crept down near 35%. There was some faux humility in the statement, but considering Bryant’s last season with the Lakers, not playing badly might have been an appropriate goal. “I just didn’t want to play bad,” he said after the game.
For much of his 20-year career, Bryant demanded a level of greatness, setting the bar so high that only a few could get to his level.
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