{"id":601342,"date":"2026-04-13T14:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/601342\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T14:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:31:13","slug":"what-kobe-bryant-taught-us-about-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/601342\/","title":{"rendered":"What Kobe Bryant taught us about closure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing in life truly prepares you for the end. Yet, for the late Kobe Bryant<\/a>, who played the last game of his 20-year NBA career a decade ago tonight, perhaps the end of his playing days wasn\u2019t just an epic coronation. Perhaps they were a fulfilled pledge to himself.<\/p>\n

Long before his 60-point swan song. Long before the Oscar-winning<\/a> post-basketball life<\/a> Bryant transitioned into as gracefully as we\u2019d seen an athlete. Long before \u201cMamba Mentality\u201d<\/a> became an internationally recognized brand, there was young Kobe. He was competitive and wise beyond his years. Because of that, the transition into the league was complex and, at times, an enraging process. <\/p>\n

Shortly after the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 1997 postseason ended \u2014 infamously after a rookie Bryant airballed<\/a> four shots at the end of the game \u2014 the budding star spoke of the mentality that would become his career\u2019s ethos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are things that can easily break you or they help you grow stronger,\u201d Bryant said<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m not the type that\u2019s gon\u2019 break easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years later, before the start of the 1999 playoffs, Doc Rivers<\/a> \u2014 who would later coach the Boston Celtics against Bryant\u2019s Lakers in the 2008 and 2010 NBA Finals \u2014 asked Bryant how he wanted his career to be remembered after he retired.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want God to say, \u2018Man, that guy could play.’\u201d <\/p>\n

Not all promises are meant to be broken.<\/p>\n

Related StoryThe NBA doesn\u2019t need a face. It needs folklore. \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

On April 13, 2016, Jim Poorten<\/a> was going to witness history either way. But he still had a hell of a decision to make. <\/p>\n

Poorten, the NBA\u2019s director of social content (and a league photographer since 2018), could either go to Oakland and see the Golden State Warriors notch their record-breaking 73rd win<\/a> of the season, or to Los Angeles to see Bryant\u2019s last game up close and personal.<\/p>\n

Advantage Kobe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting [to Staples Center] earlier in the afternoon, you knew something special was happening,\u201d Poorten told Andscape. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t a commonplace thing \u2014 for all of L.A. Live to be just about Kobe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The energy inside the arena was nearly suffocating. Everyone in the building wanted the same thing. This was it. There was no playoff run for the Lakers. And there was no next game. Not with Bryant at the helm, at least.<\/p>\n

The matchup itself was a fight. Kobe dropped 22 points in the first half on 7-of-20 shooting from the field against the Utah Jazz. His jumpers mostly felt flat. His legs looked every bit of a man who had given everything to basketball over three decades. <\/p>\n

Still, it was magic.<\/p>\n

Storybook moments feel like that because they rarely happen. NBA history is littered with all-time greats sputtering across the finish line at the end of their careers. But everyone wanted to see Kobe Bryant end his career the way he had always approached it.<\/p>\n

They wanted Kobe Bryant to bend the rules of reality one last time.<\/p>\n

In the final frame, it happened. Fourth-quarter Kobe showed up one more time for the road. Floaters were falling. Jumpers were falling. Free throws were falling. This wasn\u2019t just a game anymore. For Bryant, it was a resolution piecing itself together on the world\u2019s stage.<\/p>\n

\"KobeKobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers (left) matches up against Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers during a 1997 NBA game at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. <\/p>\n

Nathaniel S. Butler\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

After flaming out in his first playoff stint as a rookie, Bryant saying failure wouldn\u2019t break him wasn\u2019t just a sexy soundbite. It was an act of survival. Technically a man by then, the NBA still viewed him as a kid. He sat behind grown men on the bench and he played in front of grown men on the court \u2014 many of whom eagerly wanted to see if Bryant was capable of being humbled.<\/p>\n

Allen Iverson<\/a>, NBA Hall of Famer and Bryant\u2019s equally famous fellow 1996 draftee, once told the story of Bryant\u2019s obsessive mentality. Iverson was in LA during their rookie year and Bryant came to pick him up. After grabbing food, the young Laker asked Iverson about his plans for the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m going to the club.\u2019 I mean, we in LA! I\u2019m going to the club, Kobe. C\u2019mon, man,’\u201d Iverson reflected in a 2020 Players\u2019 Tribune essay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iverson\u2019s response was quintessential Iverson. Even at 18, so was Bryant\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going back to the gym,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout his career, Bryant was painted as stubborn, fiercely internal, and slightly \u2014 if not purposefully \u2014 isolated. The truth is, he was all of them. Bryant was living in a world most teenagers would crumble in. And he had to do so while trying to find his way on the court, too.<\/p>\n

So when Bryant said he \u201cwasn\u2019t gon\u2019 break easily,\u201d it was a message to the league. It was a message to the media. And more importantly, Kobe Bryant\u2019s message was a message to himself.<\/p>\n

Related StoryThe NBA’s coming Kobe generation \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

At some point, your career will end. In a game defined by uncontrollables, obsess over control. Seize control. <\/p>\n

\u201cKobe didn\u2019t care about being cool,\u201d said Julian Kimble<\/a>, writer and author of a forthcoming book on the cultural impact of the 1996 NBA draft. \u201cIt was all about the task and the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those results didn\u2019t come without their fair share of euphoria and scars. The pageantry of championships came \u2014 five times. Iconic Olympic moments and gold medals, too. Twenty-four years later, Bryant\u2019s Lakers squad remains the last American pro sports team to win three consecutive championships. He grew into one of the league\u2019s youngest and brightest stars, playing on one of its glamour teams. Bryant was the closest embodiment of Michael Jordan<\/a>, but he was also inextricably Kobe Bryant. <\/p>\n

The valleys became public fodder, too \u2014 personal, public, professional. After he was accused of sexual assault in 2003 in Colorado (an allegation he denied<\/a>), Bryant felt like Public Enemy No. 1. And when many questioned whether gifted individuals could coexist to help the team succeed, the team\u2019s future appeared murky, too.<\/p>\n

But even the complexities and contradictions became part of who Bryant was \u2014 and how the world came to remember, shun, embrace again and discuss him. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s his career and how it was seen prior to Eagle, Colorado<\/a>. Then there\u2019s everything that came after that,\u201d Kimble said. \u201cHad that not happened, we don\u2019t get him positioning himself as the \u2018Black Mamba\u2019 or creating the \u2018Mamba Mentality.’\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t mythology. Every reinvention \u2014 every awe-inspiring display of stubborn brilliance \u2014 all trickled back down to that original promise: He wouldn\u2019t break. <\/p>\n

Not a soul outruns time, though. Time accumulates. Time rusts. Time grinds \u2014 on an athlete\u2019s bones and brain. The stingers last longer and those pulled hamstrings never quite fully heal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"LOSElizabeth Mu\u00f1oz (from left), her sister Maria Mu\u00f1oz and their nephew David Mu\u00f1oz pay respects at a Kobe Bryant mural in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 23, 2020, which would have been Bryant\u2019s 42nd birthday. <\/p>\n

Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n

After 20 years in the league, his explosiveness had dulled. Those bouncy knees that won Bryant the 1997 NBA All-Star dunk contest<\/a> had long exited the building. The last several years of his career couldn\u2019t deny that the theoretical had now become reality. His body broke down in front of us. But his will helped him overcome a torn Achilles<\/a> and rotator cuff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That battle introduced an entirely new dynamic. Bryant would get injured. No one could deny that. But could he still finesse the game just enough to control what breaking down actually looked like?<\/p>\n

Something fascinating happened in the twilight of Bryant\u2019s career: He became \u2026 softer. It wasn\u2019t a weakness, though. He smiled more. The wins and the losses didn\u2019t seem to agonize him as much as they did earlier in his career. In his final season, and certainly leading up to that final game, Kobe Bryant had found the confirmation that drove him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want God to say, \u2018Man, that guy could play.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Basketball discourse is a toxic world. Who\u2019s better than whom? Who could play in different eras? None of it really matters. None of it is really indicative of the true value of a legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bryant found purpose in resistance \u2014 in opponents, injuries, and even self-sabotage. As his late 30s gave way to a new decade of life, Bryant bathed in clarity. About what he did to the game. About the family he cherished for years \u2014 the family that made sacrifices so he could be shared with the world.<\/p>\n

As he walked into what was then the Staples Center on April 13, 2016, Kobe Bryant was about to receive an answer not even he could control. There was always a crowd around Bryant as he entered the arena. That night, dressed in an all-black suit, it was as if the entire world knew he would shoot every time he touched the ball. <\/p>\n

And he did.<\/p>\n

Related StoryDon’t take Dawn Staley for granted \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

The fourth quarter was an embodiment of his quotes. The ball found his hands, then the net. Teammates understood that night had two missions: Get the win for Bryant and make sure he was the reason they won. <\/p>\n

Celebrities such as Kendrick Lamar<\/a>, Shaquille O\u2019Neal<\/a>, Kanye West<\/a>, Snoop Dogg, Jeremy Piven and more basked in awe. <\/p>\n

All Jay-Z could say was, \u201cWow<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans far removed from the artificial world of celebrity \u2014 just there to see a part of their lives\u2019 soundtracks one last time \u2014 screamed, cheered and cried. It was a revival.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want something to believe,\u201d Kimble said of the aura Bryant built around himself. \u201cPeople want to be evangelized.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a normal game. What\u2019s understood actually had to be said. There would be no comeback tour. This was it for Kobe Bryant. This was his last fierce rebuttal to basketball\u2019s exit interview. As time dwindled \u2014 on the game and Bryant\u2019s career \u2014 every possession became its own deliberation. With each point he challenged the spirit of basketball. He wasn\u2019t the bright-eyed rookie or young kid anymore. His body was different. His mind absolutely was. But whatever was left was undeniably his.<\/p>\n

The Lakers, of course, won Kobe Bryant\u2019s last game. Shaquille O\u2019Neal asked his former running mate, mutual antagonist, and ultimate \u201clittle brother\u201d to go for 50.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kobe, ever the stubborn jerk, decided 60 was more appropriate.<\/p>\n

Everyone understood this was history as well as his story.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could feel other people\u2019s joy,\u201d Poorten remembered. \u201cThat\u2019s a special feeling when you can feel other people\u2019s emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the speech. The last time he\u2019d do so with a Lakers jersey on his back. His remarks were brief. Honestly, what could he say in the moment the last 20 years hadn\u2019t said already?<\/p>\n

Then came the final line \u2014 the single most fitting goodbye following the most fitting final game an athlete could hope for, save for a championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cMamba out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Say what needs to be said, and let the history books handle eternity. The perfect ending had been achieved.<\/p>\n

Justin Tinsley is a senior culture writer for Andscape. He firmly believes \u201cCash Money Records takin\u2019 ova for da \u201999 and da 2000\u201d is the single most impactful statement of his generation.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t