The Kobe Bryant farewell tour during the 2016 season was truly one of the most surreal experiences in NBA history. At every stop during Bryant’s final season, the Los Angeles Lakers legend was showered with love and praise, even in those arenas which booed him vociferously throughout the rest of his career.
And Bryant took it all in and embraced every bit of it, which is something that really stood out to P.J. Tucker. Playing for the Phoenix Suns at that time, Tucker recalled witnessing Bryant fulfilling every request and pushing himself to play as much as possible for the fans who came out to see him.
“Kobe’s farewell might’ve been the greatest ever, dog,” Tucker said on an episode of Uninterrupted. “Like a full year of everybody paying attention to every game and people coming out to the games. I remember his last game in Phoenix bro it was like, that game sticks out to me in my mind so crazy because, it was how he was throughout the farewell.
“I’ve never, ever seen, like he was in the hallway for so long. He took pictures with everybody in my family. Like he stopped every single person, took pictures, signed whatever, he was unreal with the farewell bro. And I think about that all the time. Like I’m so happy that he got the moments of everybody showing that love because he got crazy love on his farewell. It was incredible. You hear the stories of like, he was hurting and he played through everything. Played as much as he could. It’s unreal bro. One of one bro.”
One thing that Bryant has always had was the love and respect from his peers in the NBA. He inspired so many people and even someone like Tucker was just in awe at seeing how Kobe acted during the final stages of his career. Bryant made time for everyone and did his best to put on a show every night.
Scoring 60 points in his finale will forever be considered one of the greatest final games in the history of sports. But for many others, it was those moments behind the scenes that stand out and truly showed why Bryant is one of the GOATs of basketball.
ESPN projects Lakers as team most likely to disappoint in 2026-27
Of course, the most important thing to Bryant was always winning, and the Lakers have maintained that as well with the team pushing to return to championship contention. However the folks at ESPN believe the Lakers are the team most likely to disappoint this upcoming season.
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