If Kobe Bryant were alive today, what would he say about “The Last Dance?”
It has been 90 days since The Black Mamba met his untimely demise on January 26 in a fiery helicopter crash in Calabasas, California that also killed his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people.
Gianna, a basketball athlete herself, was posthumously drafted in the WNBA during the women’s pro League’s virtual 2020 draft last April 17.
Bryant’s 20th and final NBA season with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2015-16 was also documented on video.
The highlight of “Mamba The Untold Story” will likely be Bryant’s stunning 60-point performance in his farewell NBA game on April 13, 2016.
Bryant’s documentary will be aired by Netflix soon, perhaps after Michael Jordan’s 10-part “The Last Dance” documentary from his farewell campaign with the championship-bound Chicago Bulls that still has eight parts left over the next four Mondays (Manila time) with two episodes each time.
Jordan, of course, later became a minority owner and president of basketball operations of the Washington Wizards from January 2000-September 2001 become coming out of retirement for a second time to suit up for the Wizards during the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons.
The Air Apparent has been the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets since 2010 when the franchise was still called the Bobcats.
It’s been said that the NBA player that came closest to Jordan’s killer instinct and will-to-win leadership was Bryant.
In his 60-point farewell appearance, the 6-6 Bryant took a career-high 50 shots from the field with 22 makes, including 6-for-21 from three-point range, and went 10-for-12 from the free-throw line in 42:09 minutes. He also collected four rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block before checking out for good with 4.1 seconds remaining.
The Lakers, who posted a 17-65 record for the worst finish ever in franchise history, trailed by nine points, 75-66, heading into the fourth quarter. But Bryant chalked up 23 points (of the Lakers’ 35) in the payoff period to wind up with 60 points for the fifth highest-scoring game of his brilliant career.
Bryant, a prep-to-pro star who broke into the NBA in 1996 out of Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia, thus became the oldest player ever to score 50 or 60 points in an NBA contest at age 37 years and eight months.
And minutes after the game was over, Bryant, who earned five NBA title rings with the Lakers (2000-02) and 2009-10), smilingly proclaimed “Mamba Out” before a cheering sellout crowd at the Staples Center.
The Body Armor-branded towel, which Bryant had one around his shoulders while addressing the Staples Center crowd on that day of April 13, 2016, was pulled off his shoulder by a fan on his way out of the court. It was later sold in a 2016 auction for $8,365. Following the demise of Bryant, the new owner contacted Iconic Auctions last month to resell it.
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BLAST FROM THE NBA PAST
April 24, 1967, Wilt Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers whipped Rick Barry and the San Francisco (now Golden State) Warriors, 125-122, in Game Six of the NBA Finals to secure the NBA crown and end the Boston Celtics’ eight-year string of championships. In 1980, the 1967 76ers were voted the greatest team in NBA annals.
April 25, 1950 – Charles (Chuck) Cooper, an All-American from Duquesne University and playing with the Harlem Globetrotters, was chosen by the Boston Celtics in the NBA draft to become the first black ever to be drafted.
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