Lakers' Kobe Bryant: Caps off brilliant career with 60-point effort

Bryant registered an NBA season-high 60 points (22-50 FG, 6-21 3Pt, 10-12 FT), four rebounds, four assists, a steal, and a block over 42 minutes in Wednesday's season-ending 101-96 victory over the Jazz.

In the final NBA game of his career, Bryant couldn't have asked for a better possible ending, as he put on a show to remember for the Staples Center crowd that had feted him for 20 seasons. Bryant shook off some early jitters from the field to catch fire by the second half of the first quarter, finishing with 15 points in the period. He also came up clutch when it mattered most, pouring in 23 of his 60 points in the final quarter to aid the Lakers to a comeback victory. Of course, the 60-point outburst came with plenty of caveats. For one, the Jazz, who were eliminated from the postseason minutes before Wednesday's contest started, weren't exactly playing with much motivation and rested their top two rim protectors, Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, which presented little resistance for Bryant as he drove to the tin. And secondly, Bryant's Lakers teammates fed him the rock incessantly throughout the night, as he needed a whopping 50 shots -- a single-game record in the modern era -- to get his point total. In that sense, Bryant's final game was a microcosm of his polarizing career; his supporters surely reveled in the 37-year-old's dedication to take the game into his own hands, while his detractors likely viewed the finale as the ultimate embodiment of his lack of efficiency and unwillingness to keep his teammates involved. The debate regarding Bryant's legacy figures to continue well into his retirement, but there's no denying that the 18-time All-Star was one of the top players of his era and a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Among a long list of achievements, Bryant will end his career as the third-leading scorer in NBA history, a five-time NBA champion, and a two-time NBA Finals MVP.