by John Walters
A Medium Happy 75th to Charllie Hustle….a.k.a. The Hit King. Put him in the Hall, already.
and a Medium Happy 76th to Julie Christie…
Starting Five
50 For 60
Okay, sure, the Utah Jazz played the role of Wolfsburg (or the Washington Generals), partiucularly in the fourth quarter, when Kobe scored 23 points all by himself, but the Mamba goes out scoring 60 points (for the 6th time in his career) on 50 shots, more than anyone in a sing game since Wilt Chamberlain retired.
He started out 0 for 5, but had 37 points after three quarters. Utah led 93-84 with 3;32 left and all that you or me or Mike Tirico cared about in the moment was whether Kobe, who had 45 at the time, would reach 50. He outscored the Jazz 15-2 over the next 3:27 (Jordan Clarkson added a dunk with :04 left) without another Laker scoring. L.A. won, 101-96.
This first quarter reverse lay-up with his back to the basket dropped, an omen for what was to come….
Hey, both teams somewhat grooved pitches for Kobe, but he still delivered. It was incredible how much more intriguing this game was than the one upstate.
His final career numbers: 33,643 points in 1346 games for a scoring average of…
Bryant thanked everyone after, then said, “Mamba Out.” The shirts bearing that phrase were already on sale on line
2. Oh, By The Way….*
Curry was 10 of 19 from beyond the arc to push him above 400 for the season
As a sub- “By the way,” Harden scored 38 and the Rockets won by 35 to clinch the 8th and final playoff spot out west
3. Griezmann Is THE MAN
I don’t think this is legal
In UEFA Champions League play, Antoine Griezmann of Atletico Madrid scores on a header in the first half and a penalty kick (following a blatant hand ball) in the second. Atletico Madrid knocks out reigning champions FC Barcelona, 2-0. Lionel Messi, the Curry of soccer, is a non-factor and has now gone more than 450 minutes without a goal as he remains stuck on 499 for his Spanish club career.
4. Fargo —> Far West
“Stay tuned for the ‘Best of Carson’….
The St. Louis Los Angeles Rams have traded with the Tennessee Titans for the first overall pick, and suddenly Carson Wentz is there to fill that long and aching Kobe void that L.A. has been feeling for nearly 11 hours (or does Jeff Fisher want Jared Goff? I dunno).
Or will we be saying of the Rams, “They went to Jared?” I have no NFL draftnik reasons for making this claim, but I think the Rams will take Wentz
Admire the moxie, and a good way for the Rams to make a splash with their old-and-new fans. The Titans get two first-, two second- and two third-round picks in the next two seasons. Very smart move by the non-Memphis Mariotas.
5. Taylor Swift Meets Jason Gay, Goes Platinum
Swift has now hung out with Jason Gay and Chuck Klosterman in the past nine months, which might be cool for her if she had a podcast
Brooklyn-based husband/dad and cycling aficionado meets eastern Pennsylvania native/worldwide pop culture sensation. I don’t know how this transpired, but I cannot wait to read this piece. In Vogue.
Music 101
Remote Patrol
Jets. Sharks. “We’re gonna build a wall/And Puerto Rico’s gonna pay for it.”
As opposed to “Upper West Side Story,” a less entertaining musical about a sportswriter who lives with his cat and occasionally leaves his apartment for exercise and Hostess snack cakes.
When Kobe hit 45, I started laughing & didn’t stop till almost 2 AM. If that wasn’t a perfect reflection of that guy, I don’t know what is – not only did he HOG the BALL (aided & abetted by his teammates on this occasion) in his final professional basketball appearance, he HOGGED the game, the league, the night & the HYPE away from the Warriors setting the new league 73-9 record. LOL! That this ending for that guy happened a stone’s throw from Hollywood is almost too scripted. Perhaps he was fired up by your Newsweek piece &/or your fervent twitter noting that his NBA lifetime scoring average was NOT QUITE 25 points. BTW, I LOVED the Kobe piece but was quite shocked that YOU were the writer. I thought you LIKED Kobe. Perhaps you didn’t realize, but that piece wasn’t just critical, heck it wasn’t even just snarky, it was full-on Janet Jackson NASTY. (“Gimme a beat!”)
Even though I have never, do not now & doubt I will in the future, like Kobe Bryant, I have to admit last night was fun to watch (although my FAVE thing of the evening was the Nike commercial where various folks were singing how they HATE him, it was awesome!) . The only problem is that now Sweet Pea will have to score 65 on HIS Final night, oh, 10-20 years from now. Or maybe he can start taking Meldonium (NOT a “PED” according to the totally unbiased Russian President…) & extend his career indefinitely.
Question – does the sportswriter only exercise because of his snack cake addiction or is that just a happy & beneficial coincidence? Hmmm, ‘Upper West Side Story’, I smell a hit! “Something’s coming, I don’t know what it is, but it’s gonna be great!” 🙂
And just in case there’s a part for an occasionally gumpypants broad, I sang in my Jr high AND high school chorus for 6 straight years –
“I like to be in Mar-y-land!
OK by me in Mar-y-land!
Phelps is temporarily out of state
But he’ll be back after his golden Rio date!”
🙂
So John, we’re finally the old people who just shake our heads when the know-it-all sports-following youngsters argue if these Warriors are as good as the Bulls were. Wasn’t it just yesterday when everyone our age was snickering at the thought of MJ’s boys trying to hang with the Celtics or the Lakers of the 80’s?
Kudos to the Warriors, but during the last couple of weeks I couldn’t help thinking about when Jose Canseco beat his chest and got all the love for becoming the first to ever accomplish 40-40 back in 1988. I remember Willie Mays saying at the time, “If I would have known that was going to be a ‘thing’ I would have done it every year.”
The Bulls “thing” was 70 wins and they did it. MJ’s probably now pissed that they didn’t go undefeated. (And if he could re-do his HOF speech, he’d rip Curry somehow.) Not trying to rain on the Warriors parade, just saying that this doesn’t make them a better team. Such is history, the Bulls raised the bar and the Warriors raised it another notch, so good for them.
Kobe’s an odd case, isn’t he? I always had the sense, at least early on, that all he cared about was being better than Jordan. Once it dawned on him that that just wasn’t going to happen he became sullen and a pretty awful teammate. A helluva player, but in the end it felt like while MJ would do anything to win, Kobe would do anything to score. Not exactly the same thing. (Liked the article, saying his signature achievement was the All-Star game MVPs and belittling his finals opponents were cheap shots, but who deserves some cheap shots more than Kobe???)
You unapologetically like three AAR songs, but then you apologize. I’ll go as high as 10. No apology.
Always good to have Bill H. writing somewhere on this blog….
I know I’m late to this party (by a day), but I’m partial to Stan Musial’s last game. Great recap of the game story by the St. Louis Post Dispatch back in 2013:
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/years-ago-today-stan-s-last-game/article_3a605964-d8e6-59e2-be67-eef8eea2e415.html
They don’t make many guys like Stan “The Man” anymore.