Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant made a lasting impact on the city of Los Angeles in his 20-year NBA career, winning five Championships.
Bryant’s career is being celebrated Monday night all throughout the city, as during halftime of the Lakers game against the Golden State Warriors at Staples Center, they will be retiring both of Bryant’s No. 8 and 24 jerseys.
Bryant will become the first player in Lakers history to have two different jerseys retired, and deservingly so as he had separate Hall of Fame caliber careers wearing both jerseys.
While he wasn’t the biggest baseball fan in the world, Bryant was always supportive of the Los Angeles Dodgers throughout his career, going to many games and throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.
In order to honor Bryant, the Dodgers tweeted out a video of him throwing out the first pitch back when he was young, as narrated by the great Vin Scully:
“What a brilliant basketball player.” -VIN🎙#Ko8e24 | #LetsGoDodgers pic.twitter.com/hpqYwsPurQ
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) December 18, 2017
In his Lakers career, Bryant was named to 18 All-Star teams, 15 All-NBA teams, was the league MVP in 2007-08, Finals MVP in 2009 and 2010 in addition to being a two-time scoring champion.
Bryant’s 33,643 points rank third on the all-time scoring list behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone, and he left sports fans with a lasting memory when he scored 60 points to defeat the Utah Jazz in his last career game on April 13, 2016.
He joins Wilt Chamberlain (13), Elgin Baylor (22), Gail Goodrich (25), Magic Johnson (32), Abdul-Jabbar (33), Shaquille O’Neal (34), James Worthy (42), Jerry West (44) and Jamaal Wilkes (52) as players to have their numbers retired by the Lakers.
