Hawks pay tribute to Kobe Bryant

Here is what you need to know before the Lakers’ contest with the Atlanta Hawks.

As far as bright spots are concerned, D&’Angelo Russell played over 36 minutes and notched his first career double-double with 16 points, tied for his career-high, and 10 rebounds, which set a new career-high.

In an interview with ESPN on Friday, Scott revealed the details of that exchange, which he said occurred at the start of the third quarter of the Lakers’ 108-96 loss to the Trail Blazers on Saturday.

The game’s outcome was hardly unexpected given Bryant’s age and the state of his underperforming team, but Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer still showed respect by putting his best defender, Thabo Sefolosha, on the 17-time All-Star. “When I was talking to him he said he felt great so I said ‘OK, let’s let it roll a little bit'”. “That’s all right. I’m going to announce my retirement after the game”.

Scott said he felt “OK” with Young’s play after averaging 9.5 points on 41-percent shooting in 19.8 minutes per game off the bench. “Even when I was watching him play [and] I was watching him running up and down, I’m going, ‘Did he just tell me [that]?'”

Bryant then confirmed his plans afterward to Scott before announcing the news last Sunday. “We just started laughing”. “I was like, ‘Nah, school night.’ So he hinted to me that he wanted to see them, so I was able to bring them and have a cool moment“. As it turns out, those speculations won’t become anything more than that as Kobe, himself, as requested that his farewell tour be limited to private moments and standing ovations only.

“It was so casual”. “[As a] matter [of] fact, he said, ‘You’re the first to know.’ He said, ‘Coach, you’re the first to know that I’m going to announce my retirement'”.

While that isn’t the worst time one can think of to have told Scott, it definitely does not make the top ten best times either. “That’s the only thing I could say. It was probably the weirdest game I’ve ever coached”.

Bryant, who began his Lakers career as an 18-year-old in 1996, has won five National Basketball Association titles and stands third on the league’s all-time scoring list behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone despite being plagued by injuries in recent seasons.

“We said we’ll go out there and play our game and that’s what we did”.

The one thing Bryant said that is pretty defining of Kobe, though, is that he’ll miss the “buzz of the lights” in what amounts to an empty gym.

Friday’s atmosphere couldn’t compete with the first two stops on the Lakers’ eight-game trip, Philadelphia and Washington.