Kobe Bryant On His 18th And Final All-Star Game

Held in the first venue outside of the United States, and finishing with the Western Conference All-Stars leading the way in the highest-scoring All-Star game in history, the three-day extravaganza was one to remember.

The Los Angeles Lakers forward will retire at the end of the season, so Sunday was his last appearance in the All-Star Game.

Bryant’s gone, and these young guys are good.

The game, for historical purposes mainly, shattered several scoring records.

All weekend, players spoke of being honored to share a court with Bryant in what, when all is said and done, is a meaningless exhibition. “I had a blast playing with those guys, laughing and joking with them on the bench”, he said afterward, although of course “fun” for Kobe still means sticking it to his opponents, at least a little bit.

It might be time soon for some defense at the All-Star game.

Make the break between the playoffs and the Super Bowl an early combine with the stars of today throwing passes to tomorrow’s National Football League draft picks, run the 40 side-by-side with the hopefuls and see who can press more weight in a lineman’s challenge.

He didn’t disappoint Sunday night, finishing with 31 points, eight rebounds, five assists and five steals in picking up a second straight MVP award. Anthony Davis had 24 on 12-for-13 shooting and Kevin Durant chipped in 23.

“[Bryant has] meant so much to this game, so much to me”, said George, who fell one point shy of matching Wilt Chamberlain’s individual All-Star mark of 42 in 1962. He has 291. Bryant, who is retiring after this season, leaves with 290. Chris Paul had 14 points and 16 assists for the West. Bryant left the game to a standing ovation with 1:06 to play.

There was speculation that Bryant would be named MVP for sentimental reasons and East team leader Paul George made a case for himself with 41 points but Westbrook nailed a bunch of key three-pointers in the second half to lead the West to victory. On Friday, the National Basketball Association announced it had garnered more than a billion likes and followers on its social media platforms.

While there may be a few trades that go down during the next few days, if previous year is any indicator we will likely have to wait until the last moment before we see any major movement around the league.

Bryant then addressed the crowd, as they chanted his name at a deafening level. The way his daughters beamed when they got to meet and take a picture with Stephen Curry after the game.

Is Nelly Furtado having a breakdown?That’s about the worst performance of the Canadian Anthem I’ve ever heard…

Robertson got the award from fellow Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Karl-Anthony Towns – the newly crowned skills challenge victor at All-Star weekend. Bryant thanked his millions of fans as the other All-Stars lined up in the background to salute him.

“I’ve had a history with Toronto, so I knew the city very well and it was nice to come back”, Curry said. “It’s all well-deserved”.