When Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant decided to hang up his sneakers for good, he of course went out in style, scoring 60 points against the Utah Jazz to lead his team to one last comeback victory.
Bryant became the oldest player in NBA history to score 60 points. In fact, even though he was 37 at the time, he was the only player to ever score 60 points after his 35th birthday.
Well almost a decade later, Bryant has company in that exclusive club. Over the weekend, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry had 60 points on 22-of-38 shooting in 41 minutes in an overtime loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
Curry is turning 36 in around a month and discussed how special it was to become to only player other than Bryant to score 60 points at his age, via Ali Thanawalla of NBC Sports Bay Area:
“That’s pretty cool,” Curry told reporters in Atlanta. “I didn’t know that. That was his last game? That’s special, granted we lost. It’s just one of those things you kind of feel as you go, knowing we’re on a back-to-back coming in late, trying to do whatever you can to keep our team in it. Just make shots, take what the defense gives you. Force the issue if you feel it. I think in that fourth quarter, we were very decisive and just trying to get me good looks, created some confusion. Thankfully, a bunch of them went in.
“I wish that last one would have went down and had a good look at it. But it’s frustrating, obviously not coming away with the win, knowing couple plays here, a couple of plays there, it’s a different outcome and we’re celebrating individual performance like that, but just adds to the frustration of our season.”
Bryant and Curry have always shared a mutual admiration for each other, and their careers do have some parallels considering they both chose to remain with one franchise for their whole careers through the ups and downs.
While Curry is inching towards the end of his career, he has shown that he still has a lot left in the tank to continue playing at a high level. No one would respect that more than Bryant, who shared a similar work ethic and mentality in the later stages of his career, which has allowed both players to be the oldest to score 60 points in an NBA game.
Kobe Bryant statue to be unveiled on Thursday
After years of waiting, the day that Kobe Bryant’s statue will be unveiled outside of Crypto.com Arena is finally coming on Thursday.
The Lakers organization will be doing a private ceremony outside the arena to honor Bryant before their home game against the Denver Nuggets, which will unveil the statue that will remain as long as the arena does.
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