5 Games That Defined Their Career: Kobe Bryant

It has been almost four months since the untimely passing of NBA Legend, one of the GOATs, and my childhood idol Kobe Bean Bryant , I've been trying to write this for weeks starting from the week after he passed but never got around to doing it until now.

1. First matchup Against Jordan

It was December 17, 1996, when a young Kobe met Michael Jordan on the Bulls home-court for the first time, in his rookie season, Kobe was coming off the bench and played ten minutes in this game as the Lakers already had established guards such as Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel and the coach didn't want to take any chances on the 18-year-old drafted out of high school. It was obvious Kobe learned a lot playing against one of his idols in one game than his entire life of watching him play. 'Accelerated learning', the commentators called the brief matchup.

Kobe only shot five shots and missed two crucial free throws at the end of the game while Jordan scored 39 points and got the win.

Kobe's stats:

10 minutes, 5 points, 2/5 Field Goals Made (FGM) and 1/2 3 Points Made (TPM)

2. 2000 NBA Finals Game 4

What better way to prove that you are clutch than taking over OT in a crucial NBA Final game to give your team the 3-1 lead, while your team's first option fouled out in addition to battling a sprained ankle you had obtained early on in the series due to Jalen Rose's deliberate action.

Shaq had 36 points when he obtained his sixth foul halfway through OT, Laker fans were anxious while Indiana fans thought they might have this one in the bag, hoping to tie the series 2-2. But the 21-year-old Kobe had another plan and scored 3 clutch baskets to seal the deal for the Lakers as they won the game 120-180, with Kobe scoring 28 total points.

Kobe's stats:

47 minutes, 28 points, 14/27 FGM.

3. 12 three pointer game

One of Kobe's most overlooked skill was his three point shooting, and rightfully so, Kobe wasn't exactly someone you would want to see shooting from beyond the arc, especially during the 2003 season, when he had shot 0/8 in two games and was 1/5 just the previous game.

However, that didn't matter on January 7, 2003 when the defending champions were home to face off the Seattle SuperSonics, after a quiet first quarter where he scored 4 points, Kobe went on fire and made 6 straight 3-pointers in the second quarter and went 5/7 in the third. He ended up going to the bench 4 minutes into the fourth quarter where he made 1 more three pointer and broke the then-record for most three pointers in a game. The record has since been broken by Klay Thompson and Steph Curry.

Kobe's stats:

37 minutes, 45 points, 16/28 FGM, 12/18 TPM

4. 81 point game

In the post-Shaq Lakers in the mid-2000s, Kobe was a one-man team, he won his first scoring champion during the 2005-2006 NBA season, averaging 35.4 points per game whilst leading his team to a first round exit in the playoffs. But Kobe made history on January 22, 2006 during a home game against the Toronto Raptors, he broke the record for most points in a game in modern NBA (second in NBA history), scoring 81 points.

He started off with 26 points in the first half, scoring more than half of the Laker's first half points which was 49 while they were down by 14. The real story came in the second half, when he scored 27 in the third quarter alone, giving the Lakers a 6 point lead at the end of the third. Kobe topped that performance with 28 points in the fourth quarter, this meant that he scored 55 points of his 81 in the second half. The only person to score a single point in the fourth quarter was Lamar Odom with three points. Kobe also outscored the entire Raptors squad in the second half (55-41).

Needless to say, Lakers won the game 122-104.

Kobe's stat:

42 minutes, 81 points, 28/46 FGM, 7/13 TPM

5. 5th Championship

It would be a crime if his 5th championship wasn't on this list, the revenge against the Celtics and even sweeter, one more championship than Shaq, proving to doubters that he did do it without him and the first time wasn't luck.

Everyone knows about this series, the Lakers were on a mission, and they hadn't forgotten about 2008 NBA Finals where the Celtics defeated the Lakers 4-2 with a 39-point Game 6 win, and when they finally got a rematch, it was like poetic justice.

The Lakers were the defending Champion as just the previous year, they had dominated Orlando Magic 4-1 to win the franchise's 15th and Kobe's fourth championship. And like any Laker-Celtic matchup, this series went down to the wire in Game 7 with the Lakers coming out on top, winning the game 83-79 and the series 4-3.

Kobe had an off-shooting night, he went 6/24 in the field goals but made impressive plays in the fourth quarter while grabbing 15 rebounds and was great defensively. So how did they win? Two players; Ron Artest (now Metta World Peace) and Pau Gasol, Ron came up big and made clutch threes, he ended up with 20 points while Pau Gasol scored 19 points and was phenomenal on the boards with 18 of them.

Kobe's series stats:

28.6 PPG, 8.0 REB, 3.9 AST, 2.1 STL, 40.5 FG%

Couple Honorable Mentions:

60 Points in his last game

Kobe's stat:

42 minutes, 60 points, 22/50 FGM, 6/21 TPM

62 points in three quarters

Kobe's stat:

33 minutes, 62 points, 18/31 FGM, 3/9 TPM