One afternoon, during my senior year in high
school, a couple of my
classmates skipped the first period and came late because they decided to watch
Kobe Bryant make history – making the second best scoring output ever in the NBA. When they got to school around
the second period, they immediately told everyone – especially to me, since
they knew that I’m a big Lakers and Kobe fan – about it. Everyone was blown away, and we couldn’t stop talking about it. I was, of course, ecstatic and
proud. I couldn’t wait to get home to
watch the replay – hoping I could catch a replay (we only had dial-up
Internet connection then; not good enough for streaming videos).
That was a decade ago, and it was
one of the best feelings I’ve had in my Kobe/Lakers/NBA fandom.
Since then, I’ve several times re-watched highlights of Kobe’s 81-point
game as well as the entire game itself.
And with its tenth year anniversary having recently come and gone
(January 22), I re-watched it once more.
But this time around, with the sentiment of Kobe’s career drawing to its close hanging in the air, there were some things that I was reminded of and fully
realized as I watched.