KOBE!

I guarantee you that if you walk to any basketball court in America, you will hear some small kid or even an adult taking a fade-away jump shot and screaming KOBE! to their fellow players. Why is this? Well Kobe Bryant has become a master of basketball and kids everywhere want to model their game after the black mamba. Kobe finished his career last Wednesday with a 60 point gunslinger-like mentality after wrapping up his 20 year NBA career. Kobe Bryant will go down as one of the best players in NBA history because of his ridiculous work ethic, cold blooded finishing skills and pure desire to play the game. So how good is the Black Mamba? Here’s a list of his impressive accomplishments:

1. Most All-NBA First Team honors won, career: 11 (tied with Karl Malone)

2. Most Seasons played for a single NBA Franchise: 20

3. Most All-NBA Total Selections won, career: 16

4. Most All-Defensive First Team honors won, career: 9 (tied with Michael Jordan, Gary Payton, and Kevin Garnett)

5. Only player in NBA history with more than 30,000 points, 6,000 assists and 6,000 rebounds

6. Most points scored in one arena, career: 16,161 (as of April 14, 2016, at Staples Center, Los Angeles)

7. Most games played at one arena, career: 599 (as of April 14, 2016, at Staples Center, Los Angeles

8. Highest Score against rest of teams in the league above 40 (share with Bob Pettit)

9. 5× NBA champion (2000–2002, 2009–2010)

10. 2× NBA Finals MVP (2009–2010)

11. NBA Most Valuable Player (2008)

12. 18× NBA All-Star (1998, 2000–2016)

13. 4× NBA All-Star Game MVP (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011)

14. 11× All-NBA First Team (2002–2004, 2006–2013)

15. 2× All-NBA Second Team (2000–2001)

16. 2× All-NBA Third Team (1999, 2005)

17. 9× NBA All-Defensive First Team (2000, 2003–2004, 2006–2011)

18. 3× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (2001–2002, 2012)

19. 2× NBA scoring champion (2006–2007)

20. NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion (1997)

21. NBA All-Rookie Second Team (1997)

22. Los Angeles Lakers all-time leading scorer
Impressed yet? Well those are all amazing statistics that just prove that the mamba is one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA. Of the 22 records that are listed above, I honestly think the most impressive is being the Lakers all-time leading scorer. With such a stout list of NBA talent that has ever played on the Lakers, that is a record to be proud of. Some of the former greats on the Lakers include Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’ Neal, James Worthy and even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. To rank above these legends in scoring is amazing and Kobe deserves to go out as a legend. So this tribute is dedicated to the guy who made saying KOBE during a fade-away jump shot cool, Kobe Bryant.

Farewell Mamba.