Rodman was 38 years old on the time and the Mavs have been his last staff in his career. He then retired from the league and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011. As it stands now, Durant is thirteenth all-time in NBA scoring at 26,892 factors at 34 years old and has led the NBA in scoring on 4 totally different events. He’s additionally the youngest scoring champion ever after his impressive 2009–10 campaign when he led all scorers at simply 21 years old.

For displaying us that there’s no such factor as magic however only exhausting work. Thank you for making us smile, snicker, yell, cry, leap out of our seats, and chew on our jerseys. Thank you for playing the sport the way it was meant to be performed. Thank you for instructing us to imagine in ourselves even when no person else does. The reason for the crash remains to be unknown, because the helicopter was not geared up with a black box.

On January 26, 2020, Bryant was onboard a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter that crashed in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas. Nine folks, including Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna "Gigi," died. The helicopter was on its way from Orange County to Thousands Oaks, California the place Bryant was scheduled to coach a match recreation at Mamba Sports Academy. An all-star lineup of Laker icons also paid tribute to Bryant, together with O’Neal, Phil Jackson, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and Magic Johnson. "We are here to rejoice greatness for 20 years," Johnson mentioned. "Excellence for 20 years. Kobe Bryant has by no means cheated the game, by no means cheated us as the followers. He has played by way of damage, he has performed harm. And we have 5 championship banners to indicate for it."

The Lakers defeated the Spurs in 5 games, sending themselves to the NBA Finals, against the Boston Celtics. This marked the fifth time in Bryant's career, and the first time without O'Neal, that he made the NBA Finals. The Lakers then lost to the Boston Celtics in six video games.

Whereas Chamberlain was fed repeatedly by teammates for inside pictures in a blowout win, Bryant created his personal shot—mostly from the outside—in a sport which the Lakers trailed at halftime by 14 and did not pull away until the fourth quarter. In that same month, Bryant also became the first player since 1964 to attain forty five factors or extra in 4 consecutive video games, becoming a member of Chamberlain and Baylor as the one gamers to take action. For the month of January, Bryant averaged forty three.four factors per recreation, the eighth highest single month scoring common in NBA historical past and highest for any player apart from Chamberlain. By the tip of the 2005–06 season, Bryant set Lakers single-season franchise information for many 40-point video games and most factors scored .

The foundation given for the suspension was that Bryant had carried out an "unnatural motion" in swinging his arm backward. Bryant on the free-throw line, 2005In the primary game of the 2002–03 season, Bryant recorded 27 factors, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and four steals in an 87–82 loss to the visiting Spurs. On November 1, Bryant recorded a triple-double of 33 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists in a 108–93 win over the LA Clippers. He additionally set an NBA report for three-pointers in a recreation on January 7, 2003, when he made 12 towards the Seattle SuperSonics. Bryant averaged 30 factors per recreation and embarked on a historic run, posting forty or extra points in 9 consecutive games whereas averaging 40.6 in the entire month of February. In addition, he averaged 6.9 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.2 steals per recreation, all career-highs to that point.

Bryant made two buzzer beaters to win the sport and the Pacific Division title. At the end of the fourth quarter, Bryant made a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left to ship it into extra time. The game finally went to a second extra time, during which Bryant made another 3-pointer as time expired to lift the Lakers previous the Blazers, 105–104. Kobe Bryant is famous for being top-of-the-line basketball players within the history of the NBA.

The film was produced by Bryant's production firm, Granity Studios. In addition to future animation tasks, he had been in talks with animator veteran Bruce Smith for the final six months before his dying about starting his personal animation studio. He carried out at a 1997 concert by Sway & King Tech and recorded a verse for a remix of Brian McKnight's "Hold Me". Bryant even appeared on Lakers teammate O'Neal's Respect, beginning the track "3 X's Dope", although Bryant's name was not listed on the credits. In September 2012, Bryant shot a industrial for copyright with FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi.