The City of Los Angeles, and the rest of us on social media, are celebrating Kobe Bryant Day today, 8/24.
The City Council has officially declared that 8/24, a nod to both numbers that Kobe wore during his 20-year Lakers tenure, will be a day to honor The Black Mamba's accomplishments on the court as well as his philanthropy in youth sports and homelessness in the LA community.
L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar said this of the upcoming 'holiday':
"'Kobe Bryant Day' is the City of Los Angeles' way of thanking him for his single-minded dedication to excellence, the fans and the entire City and region of Los Angeles. For 20 years, we were all the beneficiaries of Kobe’s incredible talent and legendary work ethic, and on 8-24 we’ll gather to say, 'Thank you, Mamba.'"
Over the course of Kobe's illustrious 20-year career, the Black Mamba has supplied us with an endless amount of memorable moments, including each of his five championships as a member of the Lakers.
But today is just about Kobe.
So instead of focusing on the accomplishments he and his teammates achieved as members of the Lakers, we're going to just zone in on 8 of Kobe "Bean" Bryant's most memorable individual moments.
But, we'd be remiss if we didn't throw in this iconic connection with Shaq during Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals as a bonus Kobe Bryant moment:
Kobe Drops 61 Points At Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden is The Mecca, whether the Knicks are playing like trash or not, and Kobe Bryant always brought his A-game into NYC.
In 2009, Kobe had a particularly memorable trip to MSG, hanging a record 61 points, surpassing the old Garden record of 60 set by Knicks legend Bernard King. What's more, he did it in ridiculously efficient fashion.
Bryant was 19-31 from the field and a perfect 20-20 from the free throw line en route to his record-setting performance. Of course, Carmelo later eclipsed that record with a 62-point effort in '14, but that didn't take away from Kobe's iconic scoring onslaught on that cold day in February of 2009.
This remains the most points scored by a Knicks opponent at Madison Square Garden.
Kobe Score 81 Points
January 22, 2006- the day Kobe Bryant made Jalen Rose and the rest of the Toronto Raptors his bitch. Kobe's 81 points in that game are second all-time only to Wilt Chamberlain's legendary 100.
Kobe was 28-46 from the floor that night, including 7-13 from behind the arc and 18-20 from the line... and two assists.
Jalen Rose commented on that memorable night during Kobe's farewell tour last season:
"The day he scored 81 points — people are gonna look at the box score, but if you look at his greatest plays in his history, none of the plays from that game are gonna be on there. What made that game great is the zone he was in, the discipline he continued to exude, the stamina, consistency that he had. And he never talked trash, he never pumped his chest, he never got out of character. He was like a man amongst boys."
Check out each of those 81 points in the shortened three minute video below.
The Dunk On Dwight
Long before Kobe Bryant was running Dwight Howard out of Los Angeles he nearly ran him out of the league during his rookie year with an emasculating, posterizing dunk.
Dwight, whether he was stunned by the legend of Kobe or frozen out of sheer fear, didn't even attempt to jump up for the block and instead just put up his hands and accepted Kobe's balls on his chin.
Howard would later reflected on that memorable moment and the embarrassment he probably still feels to this very day, #KobeBryantDay.
He Didn't Flinch
One of Kobe Bryant's most memorable moments happened during an inbounds play during the third quarter of a regular season game in March against the Orlando Magic.
When it happened, Jeff Van Gundy shrieked that it was the play of the game. Months later, Barnes told Sports Illustrated that what Kobe did wasn't of this world.
“That scared me a little. I mean, that wasn’t even human,” Barnes later told Sports Illustrated in a May 2010 profile of Bryant. “And then I saw the replay, and I was like, this close to him, and he didn’t flinch. I didn’t know what I expected, maybe something to happen, but he didn’t flinch.”
Kobe's verbal rebuttal after the game was just as priceless as the moment itself.
“I knew he wasn’t going to do [anything]. What would I flinch for?”
1997 Dunk Contest Champion
In Kobe Bryant's rookie year he captured the 1997 Dunk Contest crown, beating out guys like Chris Carr, Michael Finely and Ray Allen. That's right, Ray Allen didn't spend his entire career behind the three-point line.
Kobe locked up the Dunk Contest title with a between the legs dunk that Zach LaVine could probably do in his sleep but for the time it was dope and on #KobeBryantDay it's certainly one of the most memorable accomplishments of his career.
The Achilles Free Throws
Kobe Bryant's achilles injuries became a major part of his career as he got older, but those damaged tendons also provided us with one of his most memorable moments- the time he sank two free throws after tearing his against the Warriors in April of 2013.
Sure, that game meant nothing to the Lakers but a lesser human wouldn't even have had the energy to give a thumbs up after tearing their achilles, let alone stand at the free throw line and calmly bury two shots to tie the game.
According to ESPN's Dave McMenamin, here's what Kobe had to say about those free throws:
“I haven’t watched it, but just being in the moment, I knew what happened. I knew that was it. I was done. Walking back to the bench, I tried to figure out where I could put pressure on my foot to try to minimize the pain and just try to get through the these last two minutes of the game. I tried walking on my heel and I felt like that was going to work, believe it or not, for a little bit and then it kind of just feels like the tendon in your Achilles is just rolling up your calf and I thought, ‘You know what? Probably not a good idea, but I got to shoot these two free throws.’ These last two minutes, whatever it is left, all this work that we’ve done to get to this point, I got to step up and knock these down.”
On where those free throws rank with the best shots of his career …
“I’d say in terms of a moment, it’s right up there at the top because of what we went through as a team — all the injuries we went through as a team. For me, I just felt like, just go up there and make them. You can’t let your team down. If you’re going to shoot them, you better make sure you make them. That’s where my focus was. And my teammates, I don’t think any of them really knew how severe it was. I looked at Steve. I think Steve was the one who committed the foul and I just looked at him like, ‘Dude, that’s it. I’m done.’”
Posterizing Yao Ming
Anytime someone dunked on 7'6 Yao Ming it was a memorable moment, especially when it was Kobe Bryant who was doing so. And especially, especially when that game was being called by the great Marv Albert.
Kobe caught plenty of bodies in his day, from Steve Nash to Ben Wallace but this throw down on Yao will always be among his most memorable. And since I've already mentioned the dunks on Nash and Big Ben, you can find footage of those two vicious dunks below Yao's shining moment.
Kobe Puts Up 60 In His Final Game
Kobe Bryant capped off his season-long farewell tour with one of his most memorable moments, and one of the most memorable moments in NBA history. You all remember it well.
The 37-year old Black Mamba took the floor at the Staples Center for his final game and wowed the star-studded capacity crowd with a remarkable 60-point performance.
You couldn't have scripted an ending like this.
"It's hard to believe it happened this way," Bryant said. "I'm still shocked about it."
"The perfect ending would have been a championship," Bryant said with a smile. "But tonight was (me) trying to go out, play hard and try to put on a show as much as I possibly could. It felt good to be able to do that one last time."
[Via]