Damn, It's Really Been 13 Years To The Day Since Kobe Made Canada His Bitch
Every so often you see something that makes you feel old as shit. For me, it was seeing that today was the 13th anniversary of Kobe Bryant dropping 81 points against the Raptors. Even though there are few players that fill my body with hate more than Kobe Bryant, it’s hard being a basketball fan and not being impressed with that performance. Seeing as how none of us were around to see Wilt drop 100, this is probably the closest we’re going to get and the fact that it was Kobe and the Lakers will always bother me. That’s why I was rooting for Devin Booker to get to 81 a few years ago when he went for 70 against the Celts. It makes me physically ill to talk positively about Kobe and the Lakers, and I wish I could just ignore history. Fuck Kobe and fuck the Lakers forever, that’s just how it is and how it always will be for me. It’s in my blood. No means no, remember that. But, if you go back and look at that box score, it’s one of the most ridiculous things you’ll ever see on a basketball court:
28-46 from the floor, 18-20 from the line, 7-13 from deep
He was possessed, no other way to put it. You may think this was just another game, but the psychological impact was real. You can’t even mention this game to Jalen Rose even all these years later. He’s made it known it’s an instant block on Twitter if you chirp him about it. That’s incredibly soft but just goes to show this performance broke some brains. The Raptors had only 14 wins when this game took place and finished with just 27 on the season. Now that team stunk, but part of me feels like Kobe broke their spirit with this one all time performance.
It’s a weird feeling as someone who is still relatively young at 31 to see these big time moments pop up on Twitter and stuff as throwback memories. To the younger stoolies out there it’s something you can’t really prepare for. I think it first starts once you graduate and you make that slow transition to now being older than all the players you watch, that’s the first mind fuck. Then you have instances like this that happened during the prime of your life that are now over a decade old. That’s a realization I don’t think anyone is prepared for. I remember seeing this happen while I was at ASU and now realizing that it’s been so long and I’m now just old and washed up, it makes me hate Kobe even more. I didn’t need this reminder that it’s only downhill from here. Even though it’s not Kobe’s fault that time went on and we got older, it’s totally his fault because I need someone to blame.
So I’ll ask you. What was the first sports anniversary that made you feel old as shit? Something you remember watching at the time and then you see it’s been 13 years and you’re jsut sitting there depressed as shit. If I were to list a few of them simply from the NBA, it’s probably go like this
– Kobe’s 81
– Malace at the Palace
– Celts 2008 title
– Vince Carter’s Dunk Contest
– LeBron’s debut
Whenever I see NBATV or someone tweet out an anniversary video of any of those, I’m ruthlessly reminded that I’m getting old as shit and I don’t like it one bit.