Image via Complex Original
25.
All in all, it’s been an amazing career for Kobe Bryant. He’s won five championships, an MVP, and has made 11 All-NBA First Teams. His 31,700 points are currently good for fourth all-time, and so long as he can stay healthy, he should be able to pass Michael Jordan and move into the third spot this season. His Hall of Fame plaque was secured a long time ago.
But it’s not just the accolades that have made Kobe special; it’s the way he’s done it. From the beginning of his career, Bryant has made his name by coming up huge in the biggest moments and on the biggest stage. There’s a reason fans selected him to be the youngest All-Star in history during his second NBA season, and likewise there was a reason the Lakers were happy to hand the franchise over to him when they had to make a choice between Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
Despite turning 36 years old today and battling two serious injuries during the past 16 months, Kobe still has plenty to offer for his 19th NBA season. Although we’ll save the G.O.A.T. debate for another time, we’ll happily use the anniversary of his birth to honor the man’s accomplishments. Here are the 24 Greatest Moments of Kobe Bryant's Career.
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24.Humiliating His Future Teammate
Date: 4/26/2006
Would Kobe have annihilated Steve Nash like this if he knew they were going to be teammates down the road? Knowing Kobe, probably. This incredible, earth-shaking dunk sends Nash flying to the ground like a cartoon character, his long locks flopping in the breeze as Kobe emphatically slams the ball right in his face.
23.Winning the Slam Dunk Contest as a Rookie
Date: 2/8/1997
The Slam Dunk contest did not quite have the shine it once did, but Kobe’s victory in the 1997 edition was another big moment during an All-Star weekend performance that vaulted him into the national spotlight. Although the names he defeated weren’t exactly a who’s who of Hall of Fame dunkers (Chris Carr, Michael Finley, Ray Allen, Bob Sura, and Darvin Ham), Kobe still impressed a lot of people just one night after scoring a game-high 31 points in the Rookie Challenge.
22.Being Named the Youngest All-Star in NBA History
Date: 2/8/1998
Anytime you can make NBA history before the age of 20, you’re doing something right. Kobe was voted into the 1998 All-Star game by the fans at the tender age of 19, making him the youngest player ever named to an NBA All-Star game. He scored 18 points on the night too, proving that he wasn’t just a novelty act; he really did belong. He’s been back for every single game (when he wasn't injured) since.
21.Winning the Division with Circus Shots
Date: 4/14/2004
The Lakers had 55 wins and were safely in the playoffs when they took on Portland on the last day of the 2004 regular season. Kobe hit two spectacular shots to tie the game in the 4th quarter and win it in double overtime against Portland. How amazing was Kobe’s performance? After the game, Portland’s Ruben Patterson asked for (and received) an autographed pair of the Mamba’s shoes.
20.Tying Game 2 of the 2004 NBA Finals
Date: 6/8/2004
The 2004 NBA Finals were not exactly one to remember for the Lakers, who lost to the Pistons in what proved to be the final days of the Kobe-Shaq era. Bryant, who shot just better than 35 percent from the field, did not have his best series, and his team fell in five games. However, his insane three-pointer to tie Game 2 served as a perfect illustration as to why one simply does not leave Kobe open late in games. And, by open, we mean “isn’t being form tackled by his defender.” The Lakers won in overtime on the strength of Kobe’s three, which would end up being the high point of the series for them.
19.Posterizing Ben Wallace
Date: 10/22/1997
Ben Wallace has actually credited this play for making his career. Um, how? It’s tough to imagine getting more degraded than Wallace did in a preseason game between the Lakers and Wizards, but we have to give him credit for piecing together a nice NBA career after that (four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year isn't bad). And let’s give Kobe some credit, too; Wallace is a huge dude, so to throw down in his face with complete abandon requires next-level guts.
18.Eviscerating an Ancient Michael Jordan
Date: 3/28/2003
It doesn’t matter how old he is, Michael Jordan will always be Michael Jordan, and nobody knows that better than Kobe. So when he lined up against an older, less-explosive version of MJ in 2003, Bryant still relished the opportunity to show who was the best two guard in the game. And show it he did, as Kobe went off for 55 points and the Lakers crushed Jordan’s Wizards.
17.Drafted Then Traded to Los Angeles
Date: 7/11/1996
You think the Charlotte Hornets (now the New Orleans Pelicans) want this one back? They decided that they had no use for the raw, athletic, 18-year-old high school shooting guard, but they did covet Lakers center Vlade Divac. It turned out Lakers General Manager Jerry West was a big fan of Kobe, which really should have told Charlotte that they should take a second look at the young prospect. They went ahead and made the Vlade-for-Kobe swap anyway, and the rest is history.
16.All-Star Game MVP
Date: 2/10/2002
Although winning the 2002 All-Star Game MVP award probably isn’t something Kobe remembers all that well, it was a significant moment for him in that it signaled his arrival as one of the NBA’s top players. Playing in the large shadow of Shaq, Kobe was still perceived by many as a second banana who was a very good player but also a massively lucky one. He had made All-NBA Second Team in each of the previous two seasons, so it’s not as if he didn’t have a solid foundation already, but his continued growth and this breakout performance on the national stage brought him into the conversation of the league’s elite players.
15.Winning His First Championship
Date: 6/19/2000
There’s nothing quite like that first championship, and for the Kobe-Shaq Lakers it was well earned. Of their three titles, Indiana offered the most resistance as the two teams engaged in a solid back-and-forth series that saw the Lakers take the title in six games. The Lakers’ wins were almost all close, with three of them coming by seven points or fewer, and while the ring is what counts Kobe did not have his greatest series. He averaged 15.6 points per game on just over 36 percent shooting, certainly not the kind of numbers he would normally expect. He was undoubtedly hampered by an ankle injury suffered in Game 2, but to his credit battled through it and helped deliver the Lakers their first title since 1988.
14.Battling with Michael Jordan in the All-Star Game
Date: 2/8/1998
One thing Kobe will never, ever be accused of is being afraid of the big moment. More than many players, he is hyper-aware of the stakes and the stage at all times, and the 1998 All-Star game was certainly a huge crossroads for him at a young age. Having been elected to the game by the fans, Kobe had a chance to line up opposite Michael Jordan to start off the game. Embracing the challenge of facing the G.O.A.T., Kobe showed absolutely no fear on either end of the floor in taking on Jordan in a “passing of the torch” moment that saw both men put up strong numbers for the night (23 points and an MVP Award for MJ, 18 points for Kobe).
13.Winning a Ring Without Shaq
Date: 6/14/2009
For years, Kobe could not escape the popular opinion of “he can’t win a title without Shaq.” It only got cranked up when the Lakers lost in the 2008 Finals to the Celtics. While a lot of this had to do with Kobe’s supporting cast, the curse of being a superstar is that everyone expects you to be able to turn below average teammates like Smush Parker and Kwame Brown into legit championship pieces. Once the Lakers rounded out Kobe’s supporting cast, the first non-Shaq title became a formality as Kobe was finally able to shake the criticism once and for all.
12.Rising to the Occasion Against the G.O.A.T.
Date: 12/17/1997
While they didn’t overlap enough for their one-on-one battles to blossom into a true rivalry, Kobe and Michael Jordan did have a couple excellent matchups against each other. During his second year in the league, Kobe and the Lakers traveled to Chicago for a National TV clash between two of the league’s best teams at the time. The Lakers had no answer for Jordan’s 36 points and ended up losing, but Kobe erupted for 33 points off the bench and showed that he very much belonged on the same court as the G.O.A.T.
11.Consecutive Finals MVP Trophies
Date: 6/17/2010
While he struggled through a 6-for-24 performance in Game 7, Kobe was an absolute beast in the 2010 Finals as he led the Lakers to a dramatic win over the Celtics, who had beaten them in 2008. In a brutally hard-fought series, Kobe was the best player as he averaged 28.6 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 2.1 steals per game. Even as he struggled shooting in Game 7, he became an absolute monster on the glass as he ripped down 15 rebounds. His second consecutive title and Finals MVP were both well-deserved.
10.Burying a Record 12 Threes in a Game
Date: 1/7/2003
While we don’t automatically think of Kobe as a three point shooter, over his career he has averaged nearly four attempts per game and has been prone to extreme hot streaks. There was no better example of his heat check ability than during the winter of 2003, when during an amazing stretch of play he torched Seattle for a then-record 12 threes in one game.
9.Burning the Suns
Date: 4/30/2006
The 2006 Lakers were not an especially good team. They didn’t have a whole lot of talent outside of Kobe; their second-best player was Lamar Odom, a fine complementary piece but not somebody you wanted to be relying on every night. Thanks to perhaps his greatest season ever, Kobe dragged this team to 45 wins and earned them a first round matchup with the Suns. While they would go on to lose the series in seven games, this absolute bonkers finish to Game 4 gave the Lakers a 3-1 series lead and demonstrates how Kobe did pretty much everything for this team.
8.The Alley-Oop
Date: 6/4/2000
Portland’s collapse in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals remains one of the most astonishing in memory, and Kobe was right at the heart of it. He dominated the game in every aspect, putting up 25 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, and four blocks on the afternoon. More memorable, though, was his alley-oop pass to Shaq that punctuated the Lakers’ late rally and nearly blew the roof off of the Staples Center.
7.Leading the Redeem Team to Gold
Date: 8/24/2008
For all their stars and the fanfare surrounding the young players, it was Kobe who was needed to save LeBron, Carmelo, and the rest of the Redeem Team at the 2008 Olympics. In the gold medal game against Spain, Kobe took over when the United States most needed him, scoring 13 points in the 4th quarter (and 20 overall) along with a game-high six assists to help knock off a highly-talented Spain squad. It was Kobe’s first Olympic medal, and he would go on to win gold again with the 2012 squad.
6.Being Named Finals MVP for the First Time
Date: 6/14/2009
Winning his first post-Shaq title would have been sweet enough, but doing it in such dominant fashion had to make it extra sweet. Over the Lakers’ five-game victory over the Magic, Kobe averaged 32.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game to easily win himself the MVP award, the first of his career. It validated that he could indeed carry the Lakers to a title by himself, and finally broke his connection to Shaq.
5.Averaging 40-Plus Points for a Month
Date: February 2003
Athletes go on great little streaks all the time, in every sport. But Kobe’s 40.6 PPG binge in February 2003 was historically great. The last player to average that many points per game in the month of February? That would be…nobody. At one point, he went on a run where he scored at least 40 points in nine consecutive games, a feat matched in the history of the NBA only by Michael Jordan in 1986. A historically great month by a historically great player.
4.Scoring 61 Points at MSG
Date: 2/2/2009
At perhaps the most historic arena in the NBA, Kobe wanted to make his own piece of history. With key teammate Andrew Bynum out and the Lakers needing a lift, Kobe went off for 61 points at Madison Square Garden to break Bernard King’s record for most points ever scored in the building’s modern era. While the record was broken last season by Carmelo Anthony, Kobe still holds the high mark for most points by an opponent.
3.Pouring in 62 Points in Three Quarters Against Dallas
Date: 12/20/2005
The winter of 2006 was a remarkable time for Kobe. Just over a month before he dropped 81 against the Raptors, he accomplished something one could argue was even more impressive. Despite sitting out the entire 4th quarter and playing a shade under 33 minutes, Kobe poured in a ridiculous 62 points against Dallas on 18-for-31 shooting. After an insane 30 point outburst in the 3rd quarter alone, coach Phil Jackson elected to sit his star due to the Lakers’ 34 point lead. With the result already decided and history on the line, could Kobe have gotten to 80 points? 90? 100? We’ll never know.
2.Earning His First MVP Award
Date: 5/6/2008
Despite several seasons where he could (and probably should) have won MVP, it took until 2008 for Kobe to finally take home his first—and to date only—MVP award. After another outstanding season in which he played all 82 games, averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game, and led the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference, Kobe had definitely earned the trophy. It served in part as validation for an outstanding career, and the only surprise is that it took this long for him to finally win one.
1.Scoring 81 Points Against the Raptors
Date: 1/22/2006
By January of 2006, there wasn’t a lot of mystery about Kobe. He was pretty clearly a star who could do just about anything, and with a young LeBron James still developing his skills Kobe was widely regarded as the best player in the league. But even so, this was pretty shocking. He had a great first half in scoring 26 points, but that in no way foreshadowed the forthcoming outburst. Kobe scored 27 points in the 3rd quarter and 28 in the 4th, helping to turn a 14-point halftime deficit into an 18-point victory. In scoring 81 points for the game, he trails only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point effort for the highest single-game scoring outburst in NBA history.