Eight years since Kobe Bryant’s unforgettable finale

Mamba out…

Eight years ago, Mr Kobe Bryant he was saying “goodbye” to basketball in the most … Kobe way.

In a nightmare season for them Lakersbut also for him with many injuries that pushed him to “goodbye”, he found a way to make his last performance unforgettable.

With 60 points23 of them in the final period, led his team to coming back from -15 down against the Jazz and winning 101-96just their 17th of the season, which was their worst in history.

It was his first 50-point game since 2009, the fifth of his career, and he finished with a 3-pointer at 59 and another at 31 to lead his team 97-96.

“I had challenged him to put 50 in his last game and this horned putt 60!“, Shaquille O’Neal had said admiringly of his former Dioscuro.

“The perfect finale would be a championship. But I wanted to do my best in my last game. What else can I say… Mamba out!“, were his last words as an NBA player, in a line that became part of pop culture and was even used by an American president (Obama out).

And just like that, a whole chapter in the history of the NBA was closed.

Kobe was almost four years later to lose his life, along with his daughter Gigi, in a helicopter crash. And on such anniversaries as today’s, we miss him even more…