Martin, Towns lift Wolves over Lakers, 123-122 in OT

There might be more kids and less Kobe as the season lurches along for the Lakers, now 3-19 and getting lonely in the Western Conference basement.

Bryant wrote, “This season is all I have left to give”.

First overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns outdueled No. 3 pick D’Angelo Russell as the Minnesota Timberwolves hung on for a 123-122 overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers at Target Center on Wednesday. So, in a sense, he is a contemporary.

The day after Bryant declared this will be his 20th and last season in the National Basketball Association, along came December and the KB24 Farewell Tour that continues Wednesday night in Minneapolis. At the cost of building relationships, keeping teammates happy and perhaps maintaining the greatest Lakers roster of the modern era, his three-championship winning lineup with Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe has modeled himself after the greatest player ever.

As for the tricky task of aging gracefully in a no-excuses professional sports league, the 15-time All-Star and 2008 champion with the Celtics said: “I don’t’ know what I look like, but I feel OK”.

Kobe Bean Bryant was born in Philadelphia but was raised partially in Rieti, Italy, where his father played professional basketball.

That’s certainly true of the Wolves. “Me and some of the other players I’ve grown up watching have had those types of conversations before, and I’ve always taken pride in being a throwback”.

“I remember when he played the Sonics, and he threw the ball off the backboard and dunked it”, LaVine said. One signifying Bryant’s lethal mentality and killer game, the other Garnett’s three-ring circus of ooh-and-ahh skills and versatility.

Russell’s facilitating and shooting carried the offense late in the fourth quarter as he kept the Lakers competitive by knocking down triples and also hit the game-tying runner in the lane over Andrew Wiggins to force the extra five minutes of play. And after the game? “My mind can handle the grind but my body knows it’s time to say goodbye”, Bryant told ESPN in a recent interview.

In 24 minutes and 30 seconds on the court, Bryant scored 11 points.

As Chris Nolan’s version of Batman would say, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”.

Rubio has some history with Bryant.

In 2003, Bryant was arrested and accused of sexual assault in a small Colorado town, where a 19-year old hotel employee accused him of raping her. Though Bryant was never convicted and the case was eventually settled, the ordeal severely damaged his reputation, and his name would carry a stigma for several years to come. The only way to do that is for Randle, Russell, and Clarkson to show tremendous growth this season, which is next to impossible with Kobe flinging away their opportunities.

“I thought everybody hated me”, he said afterward.

“I didn’t check on him, because he was making shots”, said head coach Sam Mitchell after the game. Alongside the rest of Scott’s freaky strategies and even more freaky explanations for them over the past two seasons, it’d be astonishing if he’s still the Lakers coach next season. “I wouldn’t be starting on that team”.