Lakers’ Kobe Bryant Gets Ultimate High Praise from Rival Gilbert Arenas

Kobe Bryant All-Decade Team

Getty Kobe Bryant is reportedly dead after a helicopter accident.

Kobe Bryant is the man!

The 13th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft out of Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, PA, a hop skip and a jump from Philadelphia, what made Bryant’s game unique is that it had many deminsions.

A second generation hooper, his father, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant played overseas in Italy and in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers and Houston Rockets.

Bryant set the tone in his finale three seasons ago as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers against the Utah Jazz.

He dropped 60 points at Staples Center. The only player in NBA history to spend 20 seasons with one team, Bryant scored 23 points in the fourth quarter and rescued the 17-65 Lakers from a 15-point deficit in the Lakers’ 101-96 win. “What else can I say,” Bryant said after the game.

“Mamba out.”

For those keeping score at home: When Bryant dropped those 60 points back in 2016, he also became the oldest player to score 50 points or more points in a game.

“What a great way to finish off a Hall of Fame career,” retired NBA player Morris Peterson told me after Bryant’s 60 point night three years ago.

“On a night when the Warriors are making history, Kobe still found a way to steal the show. He left the game his way: On top! What an honor it was to play against the greatest player of our era.”

“Kobe is a true champion with the heart of a lion and it showed in his final game,” Kobe’s brother in law Jerrod Washington told me by phone after that game.

“His passion,will and determination got him to where he is today and will be with him forever.”

The higher one goes up on the elevator, it is the responsibility to send the elevator back down.

As successful as Bryant has been on the court, he has invested time into the next generation through mentoring. He spent time with Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and more throughout his career. “You have to have veterans who are interested in investing the younger guys that are coming in,” former Los Angeles Clippers center Keith Closs told me.

Bryant has been successful off the court since his retirement.

Throughout his 20 seasons in the NBA, Bryant has had endorsement deals with McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Nutella and Spalding.

Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas admires Bryant’s business acumen.

“Kobe Bryant made more off the court than he did on the court just off of one deal,” Gilbert Arenas told Dallas Mavericks reporter, Landon Buford.

“And I know he gets paid from an airline. That is the beauty of being a Laker and that is what the Lakers organization over everyone else [does]. That is why they are the Godfathers of the NBA. So, if the Lakers really want a player, there is nothing that can stop them because they have something that no one else does. If you have that Lakers stamp as a player, it is like having a Princeton, Yale, or Harvard stamp and you can walk into any business and people will sit down with you all because of that Laker uniform.”

That’s high praise.

For those keeping score at home: The Airline endorsement Arenas was referring to was with Turkish Airlines and the he single off the court Arenas was referring to was Bryant’s deal with sports drink, BodyArmor.