In case you’ve been living on Mars, Kobe Bryant is playing his last NBA game tonight and his former Lakers teammates paid tribute in a stirring pregame video.
Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour comes to an end tonight as the Los Angeles Lakers finish their season and Bryant finishes his Hall of Fame career.
The five-time NBA champion announced his plans to retire at the end of the season earlier this year and the Lakers pulled out the stops today on what was basically”Kobe Bryant Day” in Los Angeles and in the NBA Universe.
Magic Johnson gave a nice pregame speech that saw Kobe wave in appreciation to the crowd at the Staples Center who undoubtedly paid a ton of money to see a broken down superstar in his swan song.
But tonight wasn’t about that, it was about paying tribute to one of the best to ever play the game and a player who may be the greatest Laker of all-time. At least, that’s what Shaquille O’Neal said to begin this tribute video that played before tipoff.
The video features Shaq, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol who got loud ovations from the home crowd when they were shown, and Phil Jackson, among the former Laker greats. There was no appearance by Andrew Bynum or Dwight Howard.
But there were appearances by Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Steph Curry expressing their gratitude for everything Kobe has meant to them and to the game of basketball.
Forget about all the NBA luminaries in the above vide, how freakin’ awesome was it to see Jack Nicholson close ou the tribute?!
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