Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry

i

Even Hollywood, whose calls the Los Angeles Lakers as neighbor, could not have scripted a better ending.

Sixty points! 73-9!

Kobe Bryant, starting out as a lanky 17-year-old fresh off high school, played with one and only one of the NBA’s 32 teams. He’s loyal. But beyond his 100 percent allegiance to the gold-and-purple team, he’s produced numbers that will rank him among the greatest: 5-time NBA champ, 18-time All-Star, 1997 Slam Dunk winner, and 2-time Olympic gold medalist.

How about shooting 30,699 times? Yes. It’s incredible how the statisticians have kept score but they counted each one of No. 24’s shots and that’s how many he took in 20 years.

And how about that final game last Thursday morning? He rallied LA from a 15-point deficit and converted on six 3-pointers and 10 free throws. In all of sports, I don’t think there’s an ending that can rival that ending.

Of Kobe’s goodbye, the game was so in-demand that one fan reportedly paid $27,500 (P1.26 million) for a ticket. And guess how much worth of Kobe merchandise the Staples Center sold that day? $1.2 million. That’s a single-day record for any stadium in the world (besting Led Zeppelin’s $1 million at the O2 Arena in London in 2007).

Remember those moments watching Kobe, grinning ear to ear, hugging and kissing his wife, Vanessa, and daughters, Natalia Diamante and Gianna Maria? Very touching.

That was at the Staples Center. Northward, about 370 miles farther, was a game simultaneously being played at the Oracle Arena.

Which was better to watch? Steph throwing that ball almost carelessly but always finding the net, the MVP scoring 20 and six treys in the first quarter? Or Kobe scoring 23 points in the fourth quarter?

My answer: Both. I swapped channels every other minute. (But based on the TV ratings by Nielsen, the Lakers game scored more at its peak with 5.38 million viewers compared to 4.16 million for the Warriors.)

Was this the greatest day in NBA history? I think so. There are some Game 7 cliffhangers that are more thrilling — but where can you find one night (played at the same time) when the slithery Black Mamba retires with 60 and The Baby-Faced Assasin parlays an accummulated 402 three-pointers to lead the team from Oakland/San Francisco to 73 wins?

I cannot think of a day that’s more compelling and momentous. One legend retires; one team eclipses MJ and Chicago.

Speaking of the Bulls, in their 72-10 season 20 years ago, they did one thing that the Warriors have yet to achieve: win the season’s very last game. If, for some unfortunate scenario, GSW gets upset by Houston in the first round or the Clippers in the next or gets eclipsed by LeBron and the Cavs when the finals commence starting June 2, all the hoopla disappears. As high as the season unfolded, it will be recorded as a failure. And so the pressure is on; nothing less than a back-to-back trophy is needed by cast that includes Klay, Draymond and Andre.

With Mr. Curry, the overused word “Wow” is an understatement; he’s outshining the limits of greatness. As I’ve said in the past, he should win the league’s “Most Improved Player” award. This, apart from being the first in history to be a unanimous MVP.

In one word, he’s golden. Down by a percentage point (29.9 PPG average) heading towards the last game against Memphis, he scores 46 (and sat out the entire 4th quarter). The result? It pushed his regular season average to 30.1.

His jersey number? The same. Thirty. And how about the extra “1.” That’s the sign he makes, pointing a finger to the sky to acknowledge and thank God. For as the Philippians 4:13 passage that’s enscripted in his Under Armour shoe reads: “I can do all things… (through Christ who strengthens me).”

([email protected])

The state of the golden Warriors

Screen Shot 2016-04-04 at 9.18.00 AM

(Photo by Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports)

Oh, no. Given an astronomical 85 percent chance by the oddsmakers of winning at least 73 games prior to their outing yesterday against the Boston Celtics, the Golden State Warriors lost. Now, the age-old saying, “Every game counts,” is more than consequential. It’s imperative.

GSW now stands at 68-8. The math is simple: Win the next five or six and they best the all-time record set by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in 1996. If they lose two out of six, they equal the record. Worse than that and it’s huge, huge disappointment for the defending champions.

Yesterday, when Steph Curry unleashed that 28-footer with 5.3 seconds left in the ballgame, we all believed it would land inside the hole. Wasn’t this the MVP who made six consecutive threes in the 3rd quarter?

Curry missed. He’s human. “Every one of them I think is going down,” said Curry. “But it didn’t.”

Golden State trailed most of the game. Although they converted on 20 three-point shots (imagine, that’s a total of 60 points), they committed too many errors (Curry alone made nine of the team’s 22 turnovers). Boston played well; they drove the lane often for uncontested lay-ups and played tough all throughout. They weren’t rattled, even if the Warriors had never lost at home the last 54 games (and 14 months).

The heartbreaking sequence involved Draymond Green: While he stole the ball from Amir Johnson with 30 seconds to go, in the next play (seven seconds later), it was his bad play that resulted in a steal by the same Amir Johnson.

You know the saying of marathon runners? The toughest part of the 42K is the last kilometer. It’s the same for this Californian squad. As the media questions intensify and as the world’s eyes zoom towards their history-shattering feat, the pressure rises. The opponents possess an I-have-nothing-to-lose mentality while the Warriors have everything to lose.

Six games remain and every one of those six meetings is crucial for GSW. What’s their schedule like? They play their next three at home (in Philippine time: against Portland on Monday, versus Minnesota on Wednesday, and against San Antonio on Friday) before a two-game road trip that takes them to Memphis (next Sunday) and San Antonio (next Monday) as they cap off the regular season with a final Oracle Arena game against Memphis.

The game against Portland tomorrow is all-important. Remember that the Blazers was one of a handful of teams to have defeated the Warriors. This was last Feb. 19 when GSW lost by 32 points. And, in that game, while Steph made 31, his nemesis Damian Lillard scored 51. The consolation for the Warriors: they lost that game not at home but at the Moda Center. Expect the Splash Brothers to avenge that defeat and their loss yesterday with a W tomorrow.

In GSW’s remaining six outings, we know which two are most pivotal: against the Spurs. And you know what the Warriors are hoping for? That coach Gregg Popovich will rest the starters. One player thinks this will happen.

“I think no one will play (against the Warriors),” said Tony Parker, in a recent French radio show. “To Pop, the most important thing is that the players are rested for the playoffs… We are sure we will be the second seed and we can all rest before the playoffs.”

If this happens (and given that they play four of the six at home), chances are that the Warriors will break the record. For sure, NBA fans worldwide will be glued to the internet or the TV to follow GSW’s finale.

What’s next? The playoffs, beginning April 16. For now, Steph Curry is compiling incredible numbers. One of those amazing stats is this: He’s averaging exactly 30.0 points per game. And you know his jersey number, right? What accuracy!

Here’s another inconceivable (but-who-knows-it-may-happen) theory: Curry will win a 2nd MVP award — plus the Most Improved Player trophy.

Published
Categorized as NBA