LOS ANGELES • The last time Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant played a National Basketball Association (NBA) game, he went out shooting. It was April 13, 2016, and Bryant scored 60 points against the Utah Jazz, much to the delight of the Staples Centre crowd.
He was showing little of the wear and tear that nearly 60,000 professional basketball minutes had put on him. It was the kind of performance that had become rare for Bryant as he transitioned from being one of the most dynamic players in the history of basketball to an elder statesman ready to pass the torch to the next generation.
His resume, with five NBA championships, one Most Valuable Player award and 18 All-Star selections, is among the most impressive in league history.
Signing with the league right out of high school in 1996 - the first guard to do so - he changed the way the NBA identified, groomed and developed its youngest stars.
Yet, he was far more than a basketball giant. He was among the world's best-known athletes, a star on the order of Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, swarmed by fans whether he was in Beijing or Beverly Hills.
Bryant, who retired after that 2016 game with two Olympic golds, died at the age of 41 on Sunday in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, California, northwest of Los Angeles, along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others.
The NBA is now filled with players who grew up watching Bryant.
Fuelled by a seemingly endless reservoir of self-confidence, he was a mammoth figure almost from the moment he arrived in the league, at age 17, as the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft.
He was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets on behalf of the Lakers and did not try to hide his ambition to surpass the accomplishments of the legendary Jordan. Charlotte had agreed going into the draft to trade Bryant's draft rights to Los Angeles in exchange for veteran centre Vlade Divac.
He would spend the next 20 seasons with the Lakers, making him a rare one-team man despite a trade demand in 2007.
Bryant joined giant centre Shaquille O'Neal to spark the Lakers to NBA titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002, becoming at the age of 23 the youngest player to capture three titles. He was the team's unquestioned fulcrum for two more titles in 2009 and 2010.
His unmatched legacy persuaded the Lakers to retire both jersey numbers he wore - an NBA first - No. 8 and No. 24.
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His career in numbers
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1
Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards won, in 2007-08 for being the best regular-season performer.
It is also the number of Oscars he won - for best animated short film in 2018 for Dear Basketball, which is based on a love letter to the sport he wrote in 2015.
2
NBA Finals MVP awards won, in 2008-09 and the next season.
It is also the number of Olympic golds he won - in 2008 and 2012 with the United States.
Also the number of shirts the Lakers retired in his honour - No. 8 and No. 24.
5
NBA championships won.
9
NBA All-defensive first-team selections. Just four, including Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett and Gary Payton, made it nine times.
11
All-NBA first-team selections, joint second with Karl Malone. LeBron James made it 12 times.
18
His All-Star selections, second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 19.
20
Seasons with the Lakers. Only Dirk Nowitzki, who had 21 years with the Dallas Mavericks, has had a longer one-club career.
25
Games in which he scored 50 points or more. Only Wilt Chamberlain (118) and Michael Jordan (31) have done it more times.
60
Points against the Utah Jazz in his final game. It was the seventh time he had 60 or more and the first time since 2009.
81
His career single-game haul came in the 122-104 defeat of Toronto Raptors on Jan 22, 2006. Only Wilt Chamberlain has scored more in a game - 100 in 1962.
5,640
Fourth-highest play-off points behind James (6,911), Jordan (5,987) and Abdul-Jabbar (5,762).
33,643
Regular season points for Bryant, who made his debut in 1996-97. He is fourth behind Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Malone (36,928) and James (33,655), who overtook him while playing for the Lakers on Saturday.
Bryant is widely expected to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in late August, the first time he is eligible.
He scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006 to register the second-highest point record, behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962.
He led the league in scoring twice and finished his career with 33,643 points in the regular season, which put him at No. 3 among NBA's scoring leaders, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) and Karl Malone (36,928) until the Lakers' LeBron James passed Bryant on Saturday night in Philadelphia.
After his retirement, he coached girls' basketball and he arguably became perhaps, the sport's most famous fan.
He has long inspired youths, including Singaporeans. A crowd of 8,500 turned up at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to watch him conduct a coaching clinic for 20 youngsters on July 22, 2009.
"I am very happy to be coming to Singapore. I'm looking forward to meeting the fans," he had said ahead of his one-day stop, which included a question-and-answer session at the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia, with some 50 students.
Close to 400 fans here also got a glimpse of Bryant at the Nike store at Wisma Atria.
Off the court, Bryant's legacy was far more complicated. A sexual assault allegation against him in 2003 would change how many people saw the player, who remained hugely popular among NBA fans.
He was charged with felony sexual assault stemming from an incident at a Colorado hotel in which he was accused of raping a 19-year-old woman who worked at the property as a front-desk clerk.
Prosecutors eventually dropped the case when the woman told them she was unwilling to testify. Bryant later issued an apology, saying he understood that the woman, unlike himself, did not view their encounter as consensual. A civil lawsuit the woman brought against Bryant was settled out of court.
Bryant won an Oscar in 2018 as writer-producer of best animated short film, Dear Basketball, which he also narrated.
NYTIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
