National Basketball Association

"Mamba out"

Updated Jul. 17, 2020 8:26 p.m. ET

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With the NBA, NHL, NASCAR and other major sports leagues and sporting events suspended or canceled, what better time to take a look back at some iconic sports moments? Each day, we’ll deliver One Thing to Watch.

None of us were really sure what to expect – all we knew is that Kobe Bryant would somehow make his final game special.

And of course, he did just that.

By the time Kobe Bryant took the floor for the last time on April 13, 2016, we had become accustomed to the miraculous.

There was that time he scored 81 points:

There was also that time he scored 62 points in three quarters, outscoring the Dallas Mavericks by his lonesome heading into the fourth quarter:

Oh! And then that one time he scored 61 at Madison Square Garden:

We could probably go on and on with this.

But despite all of Kobe's big nights, something about his final performance sticks out – probably because it was his final performance.

Coming into that April 13, 2016, home game against the Utah Jazz, the statistics said that Bryant's body was about done. Over the past 26 games, he had played 30 or more minutes three times, he had missed six games, and he'd played 10 minutes or less twice. The Lakers had also lost 21 of those 26 contests.

But on that final night, none of it mattered. Kobe Bryant willed himself to become 'The Black Mamba,' one last time.

Somehow, the 37-year old Bryant got up a whopping 50 shots en route a 60-point outburst, earning the Lakers their first win in two weeks.

He scored 13 of the Lakers' final 15 points to complete a fourth quarter comeback over the Jazz, and then delivered his legendary farewell speech.

It was a special night for one of the game's most special players.

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