Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant’s best game against every team in NBA

Kobe Bryant’s best game against the Utah Jazz – Kobe’s Last Game at Staples Center

It is very fitting that this game is towards the end of the list because Kobe’s best game against the Utah Jazz just happened to be the final game of his career. For one final night, Kobe lit the Staples Center on fire and put up 60 points while every celeb and their mom celebrated in the stands that night.

Kobe took the Lakers back from 15 points down in the fourth quarter and hit the final game-winner of his career and it seemed like there was no better way for Kobe to go out. He might not have retired a champion, but in typical Kobe fashion, he surprised us all with another scoring feat that seemed impossible at that point in his career.

Sure he took 50 shots, but they needed every point of his 60 to win the game that night, and that made it even more special. Ramona Shelburne, who covered the Lakers for practically Kobe’s entire career mentioned in an ESPN podcast dedicated to Kobe earlier this week, that she had never heard the Staples Center louder than Kobe’s last game.

This was a full-circle moment for Kobe’s career because early on in his career he had a game where he struggled mightily against the Utah Jazz in the playoffs and had multiple airballs in the game. He had come a long way since he was a teenager playing in the league, he was now a living legend.

Even Kobe’s speech after the game was special, as he talked to the entire Staples Center crowd he thanked them, but Lakers fans should have been thanking him. The memorable quote from his speech was short, sweet, and was a mic drop moment,

“Mamba out”