Lakers to retire 8, 24

A NOSTALGIC moment it will be in the National Basketball Association today (December 18, U.S. time) when the Los Angeles Lakers honor one of their all-time greats, Kobe Bean Bryant, with the retirement of the two jersey numbers he wore during a distinguished 20-year tenure with the only franchise he had played for.

To be raised to the rafters of the Staples Center during halftime ceremonies of the Lakers’ game against the reigning NBA titlist Golden State Warriors are the Nos. 8 and 24 worn by the all-time scoring leader in the Lakers’ storied 70-year existence (surpassing Jerry West for the distinction on February 1, 2010).

Once a prolific 6-foot-7 shooting guard, Bryant wore No. 8 in his first 10 seasons (1996-2006), winning three consecutive championships (2000-02) in tandem with Shaquille O’Neal during the stretch, and No. 24 in his final 10 seasons (2006-2016) when he was name NBA Most Valuable Player once (2007-08) and earned back-to-back title rings and a pair of Finals MVP hardware (2009-10) as the club’s alpha dog.

Bryant, the son of former NBA frontliner Joe (Jelly Bean) Bryant from the mid-seventies through the early eighties, called it quits at the conclusion of the 2015-16 season. In his farewell (regular-season) game on April 13, 2016, a come-from-behind 101-96 victory by the Lakers over the Utah Jazz at the Staples Center, he racked up 60 points – the most by an NBA player during that campaign – on 50 field attempts. He outscored the entire Utah unit, 23-21, in the fourth quarter.

The Philadelphia-born Bryant thus became the oldest player ever to collect 60 points or more in a single game at age 37 years and 234 days.

Bryant, who jumped into the NBA out of Merion High School in Pennsylvania in 1996-97, is the 10th player to have his jersey number retired by the Lakers, joining Wilt Chamberlain (13), Elgin Baylor (22), Gail Goodrich (25), Earvin (Magic) Johnson (32), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (33 – formerly known by his Catholic name Lewis Alcindor), Shaquille O’Neal (34), James Worthy (42), Jerry (The Logo) West (44) and Jamaal (Silk) Wilkes (52 – the former Jackson Keith Wilkes who later converted to Islam and legally changed his name to Jamaal Abdul-Lateef in 1975 but continued to use his birth surname only for purposes of public recognition).

The name of long-time Lakers play-by-play announcer Francis Dayle (Chick) Hearn also is hanging in the rafters of Staples Center, the club’s home court since 1999 (the Los Angeles Clippers are a co-tenant).
The Lakers normally retire only the jersey numbers of players already in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but have made an exception in the case of O’Neal and Bryant, the latter of whom is not yet eligible for Hall induction until 2020 or after a four-year wait upon playing retirement. (It was fast-tracked as such this year, setting aside the traditional five-year wait of the past.)

The 39-year-old Bryant, whose parents named him after the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu, chalked up 33,643 points in 1,346 regular games during his career – currently third on the all-time NBA scoring ladder behind Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points in 1,560 games) and Karl (The Mailman) Malone (36,928 points in 1,476 games).

At 34 years and 104 days of age, Bryant became the youngest player in NBA annals to reach 30,000 career points.

Then again, in the next 12-13 games, and barring any injuries, another prep-to-pro great, LeBron Raymone James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is expected to eclipse Bryant’s distinction.

James has produced 29,650-plus career points and going into a road game against Milwaukee tomorrow (Manila time), he ranks third in NBA scoring with a 27.8 average for the Eastern Conference second-best 22-8 Cavs to trail just Houston’s James Harden’s 31.5 ppg and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 29.8 ppg.

Based on his current average, James is expected to surpass Bryant as the youngest 30,000-point career scorer ever in January next year. James will turn 33 on December 30.