Sacramento Kings fans probably have seen enough of Kobe Bryant. After all, the Los Angeles Lakers legend has tormented them in the past with many great performances, most notably the controversial 2002 Western Conference Finals.
Bryant played in Sacramento for the final time in his career Thursday night, racking up 28 points on 10-of-18 shooting in 31 minutes. He scored 18 of those points in the first half.
In doing so, Bryant became just the third player in NBA history to score 33,000 career points. He reached the milestone on this shot:
Bryant isn’t going to move up any further on the all-time scoring list. He’s nearly 4,000 behind former Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone at 36,928 points, while former Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leads everyone with an astounding 38,387 points.
We might not see anyone break Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record, because it would take 20 seasons of 2,000 points to overtake him. Just playing 20 seasons is difficult enough, let alone scoring that many points per season. Still, it would have been interesting to see how close Bryant could have come to the all-time record if injuries hadn’t derailed his two previous seasons.
Thumbnail photo via Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports Images
