Thank goodness that's over. What an ugly, drawn out process Kobe Bryant's last season for the Los Angeles Lakers was, given how badly they performed in the past 82 games.
Winning just 20 per cent of their games, they were the worst offensive team in a league. The Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs on the other hand, have taken scoring and sharing to a new level. They have perfected it to a point where we have to ask - are the Warriors an outlier of a team in terms of execution and scoring or are they the future of what it will be like in years to come?
What we had yesterday was the final chapter of a star's career that had the opportunity to see out his days on his terms, whether that suited the team's future goals or not.
Given that Bryant had the lead role in five of 16 NBA championships in one of sport's most famous franchises meant this could be afforded. They're only a quarter of way through a 20-year US$4 billion ($5.8 billion) broadcast deal with Time Warner that banks on producing the success that Bryant brought them. So they gave their most recent favourite son - a guy who helicopters to downtown LA to the Staples Center because of congestion from his house - a farewell tour while blatantly tanking to improve their draft lottery chances.
