Celtics Give Kobe Bryant Parcquet Floor as Parting Gift

Bryant said he could hear the haunting percussion through the walls in the locker room and knew that game time was near.

The Lakers and Celtics rivalry may have cooled off in recent years with both teams struggling in the standings, but it is a rivalry that was reinvigorated twice in the past decade with Bryant on board. The last game of the series was a complete annihilation in Boston which Bryant still says was the worst loss of his career and still haunts him to this day. I grew up watching Paul Pierce develop into an National Basketball Association star and eventually saw the making of a big three that would lead to much of the joy in my life from 2007-2013. “Here it is a little different because this is the city that drafted me. From your friends and rivals, The Boston Celtics”, the inscription read. The Charlotte Hornets selected him with the 13th pick. “That’s the one memory that I remember the most from that Game 7”. “He hit some big shots down the stretch and I think eventually, in a certain way, you kinda lose sight in the bravado of, “This is Boston.’ They’re saying, ‘I don’t appreciate what a legend did” to a certain extent, you know?” “What kind of dad does that?'” he recalled. (And) I thought Julius Randle just went right through us and just dominated us physically. I became extremely comfortable.

Said Bryant: “I’ll take a 1-1 draw”. “If they chose to draft me I was going to carry this franchise the way they deserved to be”.

The Garden faithful, many of which were donning No. 24 Bryant jerseys, gave the future Hall of Famer a deafening standing ovation during the Lakers’ pregame introductions, then broke into a chant of “Ko-be, Ko-be, Ko-be!” as the Celtics pregame jumbotron video began.

“It for sure felt like a college atmosphere”, Jae Crowder said. “2008 on, though, that wasn’t going to happen”. Bryant leads in points with 17.3 and in assists with 3.4 assists per game.

The Lakers are looking for their first back-to-back victories since a three-game run February 22-27. “I’ll scan the crowd a lot and try to soak it all in as much as possible”.

“For the second half of my career, it’s the most important piece because when we lost in 2008, that was the turn for me”, Bryant told NESN.com.

“I was determined and said listen I have to figure a solution with this leadership thing and do whatever is necessary”, Bryant said. “I can’t go through this, ‘ and that was a turning point”. “I didn’t get the start I wanted, but the finish was fine”. “The battles that we’ve had with them, especially Kobe over the years”.

If not for Turner, the Celtics would never have made this a contest.

Bryant’s long shot helped stem a Boston comeback and he then pulled down his 11th rebound on the next play as Los Angeles ended Boston’s four-game winning streak. You’ve got to make a choice based on what you need today. That’s just how sports are.

So which Finals matchup stands out more for Bryant? I saw all of that in my kids’ eyes as they saw the Parquet floor for the first time. He studies the banners in the rafters, often scans the green-tinted crowd. “I’ll be doing that quite a bit tonight”.

Added Bryant: “This building is the place that helped push me win those two championships”.