Kobe nostalgia resurfaces

Ten years after Kobe Bryant scored 60 points in his final National Basketball Association game, fans spent April 13 reposting clips, photos and tributes to the Los Angeles Lakers star. (x.com) Bryant scored 60 in a 101-96 win over the Utah Jazz on April 13, 2016, at Staples Center, finishing with 22 field goals on 50 shots, 6 three-pointers and 10 free throws. (basketball-reference.com) The Lakers trailed 57-42 at halftime and entered the fourth quarter down 75-66 before Bryant scored 23 points in the final period to close his 20th and last National Basketball Association season. (espn.com) The anniversary landed as the league moved into the last week of the 2025-26 regular season, with National Basketball Association feeds mixing Bryant highlights with current playoff-race posts and end-of-season retrospectives. (x.com) Bryant’s final game remains a fixed date in league history because it condensed the numbers attached to his career into one night: 20 seasons with one franchise, 33,643 regular-season points, 18 All-Star selections and five championships with the Lakers. (hoophall.com) (basketball-reference.com) He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class, a year after his death in a January 26, 2020, helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. (nba.com) (basketball-reference.com) The game itself was already unusual before tipoff: Utah finished 40-42, Los Angeles finished 17-65, and Bryant at age 37 produced the highest-scoring game by any player in the league that season. (basketball-reference.com) (nba.com) National Basketball Association video and highlight packages have kept the performance in circulation, including a full official upload of Bryant’s 60-point finale that has drawn millions of views on YouTube. (youtube.com) A decade later, the posts returned to the same closing image from April 13, 2016: Bryant leaving the floor after one last comeback, one last 60, and one last “Mamba out.” (espn.com)