Lakers: Kobe Bryant Made His Debut 25 Years Ago Today
Kobe Bryant made his debut 25 years ago today. Typing just that made me a little emotional. This piece may feel more conversational than others because of that. Just throwing that out there. The world lost Bryant, Gigi, and seven other good souls nearly two years ago (wow) and the NBA world has not been the same since. This play really put Bryant on the map as far as people saying "something special is here.
Kobe Bryant brought 5 NBA championship to LA. Between being the '2' punch in the Shaq and Kobe era, to the two titles him and Pau Gasol lead the Lakers to in 09/10, Kobe gave LA the glory it deserved. He amassed 33,643 points, an MVP, two NBA finals MVPs, 18 All-star selections, 11 NBA first team selections, 4 NBA all-star game MVPs, 9 NBA all-defensive first team selections, two scoring titles, and a slam dunk championship. This monstrous list of accolades don't even come close to describing Kobe's magic in LA. There was always a sense when the game was close and the Lakers needed some magic, that Kobe was going to come through. He often seemed to will his team to victory, like this game that I'll never forget.
I didn't have words for that when I watched it live, and I still don't. It was just mesmerizing.
Kobe Bryant means more to LA than people realize. The day that he passed, it shook the entire media world, but it also changed the people of LA. If you look at the murals around LA, at the "do it for Kobe" slogans when the Lakers won the 2020 NBA title and when the Dodgers won the 2020 World Series, it was bigger than any of us could put into words. There are 20 years of a legendary hall-of-fame career that I could parse, but Laker fans just know.
A quarter century ago, Laker fans were forever changed.
