The legacy of Kobe Bryant will forever live on. For Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid, he wants to be sure that he will live on forever.
He honored the NBA legend by wearing his number 24 jersey in their 115-104 win over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday and he scored 24 points with eight defensive rebounds, he had 10 rebounds in total.
“That was cool,” said a smiling Embiid after the game.
How Embiid scored the 24th point was heartfelt as he caught the ball in the low block and then drilled a fadeaway jumper to score the final of the 24 points. He also confirmed postgame that he yelled out “Kobe!” while taking the shot in reference to everybody calling out his name on that type of shot.
“I didn’t know it was actually the 24th point as I shot that fade away,” he explained. “That was what he was about. I actually yelled ‘Kobe!’ so a lot of us since I started playing basketball, that’s how we’ve always done it. You shoot something in the trash and you just go ‘Kobe’ so that was cool.”
Joel Embiid wore No. 24 for Kobe tonight and scored 24 points.
On the Mamba's patented fadeaway to hit 24 points, Embiid says he yelled "Kobe!" pic.twitter.com/d3ttEbB9YU
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 29, 2020
It capped off a perfect night for the Sixers big man who returned after missing nine games with the torn radial collateral ligament in his left hand. Bryant meant so much to him and he was the reason why he started playing basketball.
“Kobe was the idol,” he said. “When you look at my story, I started playing the game back in 2010 watching the Finals, the Lakers against the Celtics, and that was the turning point of my life. Just watching that Finals and watching Kobe. After watching that, I just wanted to be like him. I just wanted to play basketball.”
That did not mean it was so easy for it to happen as he had to persuade his parents into letting him play basketball.
“It took a lot of convincing to let my dad let me play basketball,” he added. “Then a year later in 2011, I finally got the chance to start playing and I don’t think if it wasn’t for that moment, I wouldn’t be here. I probably would have been playing volleyball or something. That’s why he meant a lot for me.”
Embiid and the Sixers will now move on from this and continue to grow as a basketball team. They will begin a four-game road trip on Thursday against the Atlanta Hawks and it helps that their star big man is back. [lawrence-related id=24435,24433,24426]