Gordon Hayward: Jazz were ‘in shock’ during Kobe Bryant’s final game
Kobe Bryant could not have scripted the final game of his career any better, as he exploded for 60 points and completely took over to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a win. People around the NBA were in awe of the performance, including the players who allowed it to happen.
In a post on his personal blog this week, Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward admitted that being a part of Kobe’s final game was unlike anything he or any of his teammates had experienced before.
We were trying to win, and for a while there we were. But at the end of the game, in the closing minutes, everything that transpired kind of shocked us, to be honest. We were up double digits for most of the second half, and we led by 10 with about three minutes to go. So when Kobe started hitting shots and the game started to get close, a lot of us were in shock.
It was like being a part of a showcase, or being in a video game. There wasn’t really much normality about it. A guy scored 60 points and took 50 shots. There was something different as far as his aggressiveness. I think every time he touched it, you knew he was going to try to shoot it, or try to score, or try to get something going. He’s always an aggressive player, but that night, he was ultra-aggressive and tried to score on every single possession.
As Hayward noted, Kobe took 50 shots — including 21 from 3-point range. That’s not something that happens during an NBA game, and only a five-time champion who was playing in the final contest of his career could have gotten away with it. That, in itself, must have been surreal for those playing against Bryant.
Even the reigning NBA MVP had a great reaction when told about Kobe’s stat line. It was just a once-in-a-life-time type of thing. That clearly was not lost on anyone who was a part of it, and many who weren’t.