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Best Of
Re: Favorite Kobe moment
I have a friend whose dad used to work the production booth for SportSouth or whatever it’s called nowadays; he basically ran the game-to-game operations in the studio for the Hawks and Braves.
So I got the awesome chance to “shadow” him for a night in March 2013 when the Lakers came to town. I went into the Hawks’ locker room, got to hang out in coach Larry Drew’s office with my little press pass, and caught Pau Gasol putting up jumpers in a side gym before the game. Quick note: if you’ve never stood next to NBA players, they are massive human beings. You know a 7-footer when you see a 7-footer.
Anyways, the Lakers were on a roll and had won 17 of their last 22 heading into the game. Kobe was averaging 27 ppg. The Hawks jumped out to a double digit lead in the 3rd quarter before Kobe started to heat up. We knew it was coming at some point, but that’s the thing about vintage Kobe; he would just start hitting shots out of nowhere. I was watching the game on the flat screen TVs under the arena, but you could hear the crowd groan each time as Kobe hits four straight shots.
I’ll never forget this; Dominique Wilkins is sitting at the same table next to me watching, and mumbles out loud something like “holy %$&^, here comes Kobe”. So after a few misses, Kobe starts to take over. Midrange bucket, two free throws, layup plus the foul, then two more jumpers. It takes only two minutes of game time, and the Hawks call timeout with the lead cut to one. We ended up winning, and Kobe came down on somebody’s foot at the end of the game and badly sprained his ankle.
I’ll never forget watching Kobe in his last great season. He was dragging his team to the playoffs, and then he tore his Achilles and was never the same. Just hearing the way Dominique talked about him, the respect and healthy fear of Kobe catching fire, stuck with me. The man was put on Earth to play basketball, and it’s tragic that his story ended so young.
CTDawg