Kobe Bryant’s final matchup in Lakers-Clippers rivalry is more than just another last game
In a year rife with lasts for the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant, the next iteration of nostalgic finality will hit close to home—literally—on Wednesday night.
Exactly one week before the curtains close on possibly the NBA’s most enigmatic success stories, Bryant will play his final game against his coziest foe in an arena that might as well adorn his face on center court.
In it’s 17 years of existence, STAPLES Center has been the official home the Lakers and Clippers—and the unofficial home of Kobe.
Throughout the entirety of their tenure as NBA roommates, the Clippers and Lakers have battled for hardwood superiority in downtown Los Angeles. The teams have now faced off in 66 games at STAPLES Center—all with Kobe on the Lakers roster.
In it’s 17 years of existence, STAPLES Center has been the official home the Lakers and Clippers—and the unofficial home of Kobe.
That will come to an end Wednesday as The Black Mamba suits up for the final time against the Clippers, the culmination of a surprisingly nuanced relationship with his cross-hall rivals.
Most famously, Bryant nearly jumped ship to the Clippers in 2004 as his tenuous relationship with Shaquille O’Neal boiled over, just weeks after an NBA Finals defeat. But O’Neal demanded a trade, resulting in his to departure Miami and the Lakers retained their 26-year-old superstar. (Amid all of this season’s pomp and circumstance surrounding Kobe, the thought that he was terrifyingly close to bolting for the adjacent locker room is almost unfathomable.)
Since then, Bryant has come to play when the two teams meet, notching six 40-point outings and torching them twice 50 points in consecutive years.
Of course, it all would have been for naught had the Purple and Gold failed to return to championship form. But three consecutive NBA Finals appearances, including two against Doc Rivers and the hated Boston Celtics, reaffirmed Kobe’s faith in the organization and cemented his place in Lakers lore.
Today, those winning ways are a thing of the past, but Rivers and Bryant still share a connection from their clashes on basketball’s biggest stage.
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For Rivers, his home at STAPLES Center will always have the lingering taste of the Lakers’ Game 7 victory in 2010, so much so that he even opted to cover their championship banners during his team’s home games. Despite having won eight-straight against the once-dominant Lakers, Rivers has never forgotten his brush with Bryant in that championship series, per The Long Beach Press-Telegram:
“I just remember how hard he was every night. I mean, he was just tough, physically. I thought both of those series, the mental part of Kobe is what stood out.”
Of course, one major reason why the balance of power shifted so heavily in the last several years is David Stern’s egregious veto of the Chris Paul trade in 2011. Instead of the dynamic backcourt of Kobe and Paul, the Lakers’ unravelled, damaging their relationship with two key players and falling out of relevance as Paul and his retooled squad ascended the NBA ranks.
In an interview with ESPN last week, both players recounted conversations of potentially winning championships as teammates. Bryant still bemoans the missed opportunity:
“Things would’ve been very, very, very different around here,” he said, “with two of the most competitive people the league has ever seen.”
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A week from Wednesday, things will be very different regardless. But as STAPLES Center hosts its final game between Kobe and the Clippers, let’s appreciate one last chapter of what may be basketball’s most confounding sagas.