Tag: Kobe Bryant

NBA 2K: The players with the best average ratings in history

Today, we have decided to take a look at the players with the best average ratings in NBA 2K history throughout their various times featured in the game. It shouldn’t come as a surprise who finishes first on this list, as LeBron James has been one …

Today, we have decided to take a look at the players with the best average ratings in NBA 2K history throughout their various times featured in the game. It shouldn’t come as a surprise who finishes first on this list, as LeBron James has been one of the best players in the world for the past 20 years.

However, after James, things do get interesting. We’ll give you a hint: Another Los Angeles Lakers legend finishes second on the list.

Oh, and for those curious, Michael Jordan was only featured in NBA 2K during his time with the Washington Wizards, but he still managed to be a Top 10 player.

Kristin Juszczyk designed a sick pair of Kobe Bryant-themed pants for his daughter

These Kobe Bryant-inspired pants are awesome.

Kristin Juszczyk designed some sleek-looking Kobe Bryant-themed pants for his daughter, Natalia, and they’re totally sick.

Kristin rose to fame last year after making dope custom designs for stars like Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes and even for her husband, Kyle Juszczyk, during Super Bowl 58. Her work typically takes a sports jersey and reimagines how it would look in the form of a dress, a vest, a jacket and all kinds of apparel items.

So, it’s not shocking that she was asked to make some basketball jersey pants for Natalia Bryant. In a newly shared video to TikTok, Kristin displays a Black Mamba Kobe 24 jersey before giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at how she designed the jersey to be several pairs of pants. One completed pair eventually finds its way to Natalia, who happily twirls to show off the finished product.

@kristinjuszczyk

Mamba Mentality Forever 🐍♾️

♬ original sound – Kristin Juszczyk

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=421393248]

 

PSA president Ryan Hoge: ‘People will still want to collect Michael Jordan cards 100 years from now’

Ryan Hoge discussed the Kobe Bryant special on PSA Magazine, the best Michael Jordan trading cards, the card collector industry and more.

HoopsHype sat down with authentication and grading company PSA president Ryan Hoge to discuss the Kobe Bryant special on PSA Magazine, the best Michael Jordan trading cards, staying vigilant against fake submissions, his favorite NBA cards and more.

The one Lakers great Michael Cooper wishes could be at his jersey retirement

Michael Cooper will have his jersey retired by the Lakers in January, and he wishes that arguably the greatest Laker ever could be there.

In less than two months, former Los Angeles Lakers 3-and-D wing Michael Cooper will be officially inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after being voted in earlier this year. It will be an amazing honor for the 68-year-old Cooper, who won five NBA championships with the Lakers in the 1980s, and then launched a long and successful coaching career that included back-to-back titles with the Los Angeles Sparks.

He will also get his No. 21 jersey retired by the Lakers organization on Jan. 13 at Crypto.com Arena. Jersey retirements are often an occasion when other all-time greats for a franchise are in attendance, and there is one Lakers legend Cooper wishes could be on hand on Jan. 13.

Unfortunately, he cannot, because he tragically passed away four years ago, along with his daughter and seven others, in a helicopter crash.

On his “Showtime” podcast, Cooper said it would’ve been great if Kobe Bryant could’ve made it to his jersey retirement ceremony.

“Kobe would be another one that I wish could be there because it’s kind of like he’s not here, but it’s the year 2024,” Cooper said. “That’s one of his jersey numbers, 24 and 8. I just think that’s something synonymous with the Lakers that’s happening with the young man who I had the chance to, I worked this kid out and I told everybody, Jerry and them said ‘What you think, Coop?’ I said, ‘He got it.’ So Kobe would be one that I wish that was there, I forget about him.”

Cooper referred to a pre-draft workout in 1996 that the Lakers held, during which they decided to see what Bryant was made of. So they had Cooper, who had retired from the NBA six years prior but was still in great physical shape, guard Bryant as if the 17-year-old were Michael Jordan or Larry Bird.

Bryant passed that stiff test with flying colors, and then-executive Jerry West knew he had to have the Philadelphia-area native.

Weeks later, he traded starting center Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for the draft rights to Bryant, who went at No. 13 in that year’s draft. The rest, as they say, was history.

Dodgers will celebrate Lakers legends with T-shirt giveaway this weekend

The Dodgers will pay tribute to multiple Lakers champions this weekend at Chavez Ravine.

This has been a fairly exciting season for the Los Angeles Dodgers. It has seen the team debut of two-way star Shohei Ohtani, arguably the best player in baseball, and they have been keeping pace with the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees in the race for Major League Baseball’s best record.

The Dodgers have always shown a strong affinity for the Los Angeles Lakers. This weekend, they will be paying tribute to a number of legends who wore the Purple and Gold.

On Saturday, when they face the Tampa Bay Rays, five members of the Showtime Lakers will be throwing out the first pitch. The Dodgers will also be giving away a T-shirt with depictions of the Showtime Lakers wearing Dodgers jerseys that night.

The following afternoon, they will wrap up their three-game series versus the Rays by giving away a T-shirt honoring late Lakers great Kobe Bryant.

Fans planning on going to either game should be aware that either T-shirt will only be given to the first 40,000 fans in attendance.

Nephew of Kobe Bryant, a 2026 safety, trying to visit Notre Dame this fall

Surely those are good bloodlines

Although the page has yet to be turned on the 2025 Notre Dame recruiting class, see Deuce Knight, the Irish are still looking ahead to the next class.

One of its targets is Nevada safety [autotag]Jett Washington[/autotag], who was offered a scholarship back in January is extremely interested in the Irish. The 6-foot, 5-inch and 200-pound star is ranked as the nation’s No. 61 overall prospect and 4th ranked athlete according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

According to a social media post by Matt Freeman, Washington is looking to get to South Bend sometime in November. Notre Dame has two of its biggest games that month, hosting Florida State and traveling to USC.

You have to assume that the Irish coaching staff wants Washington on campus when the Seminoles come to town, as that’s the best recruiting environment they’ll have during that month.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (Formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on X: @MikeFChen

D’Angelo Russell talks about playing in Kobe Bryant’s final NBA game

In Kobe Bryant’s final NBA game, everyone wanted him to shoot as much as possible, and D’Angelo Russell talked about that experience.

Kobe Bryant’s last three NBA seasons were difficult to watch. After tearing his Achilles late in the 2012-13 campaign, he didn’t even remotely resemble the player he had been for nearly a decade and a half, and he had trouble staying healthy.

In those last three years, the late Los Angeles Lakers great averaged 18.9 points a game on 36.6% shooting from the field and 28.5% from 3-point range.

But he left everyone with one last indelible memory of his greatness by pouring in 60 points and leading the Lakers to victory after trailing by 10 with 3:20 left in his last game. While he was relatively efficient, he took a whopping 50 shots, as everyone wanted him to shoot the basketball as often as possible.

D’Angelo Russell, who was then a rookie and in his first stint with the team, recalled how everyone always wanted the ball to go to Bryant in that game while on the “Run Your Race” podcast.

“Bro, when you got the ball and they boo you, you know what that means. Get that ball to that man. He was just trying to score. I remember Julius [Randle] was like, ‘Bro, I’m just trying to get on the board. I’m just trying to score. I ain’t trying to have zero.’ So everybody was just trying to get two, like just get two. He’s gonna get all the other ones.

“So that’s what it was. It was really us running around trying to get him the ball because they were trapping him. He was shooting tough twos like one-footed inside the 3-point line twos, like pull-ups. You just see his face he looked young. He just looked like he had it. I don’t know what was getting him through that [expletive]. He didn’t come out of the game. He was prepared, though. You could see it, mentally, he was prepared. Everybody in the world was at the game. Denzel [Washington], Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal), like everybody.”

In that game, only one other Lakers — guard Jordan Clarkson — managed to get into double figures, and no one on the team other than Bryant attempted more than 10 shots. Russell went 4-of-10 and scored nine points with five assists in 36 minutes.

In a purely sentimental sense, it may have been Bryant’s finest moment or at least fans’ favorite memory of his storied career.

Bears rookie Rome Odunze talks about Kobe Bryant during HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’

Late Lakers great Kobe Bryant continues to be a sterling example for others to follow and model themselves after.

Late Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant wasn’t jsut one of the greatest basketball players of all time — he also became an icon who transcended basketball. His “Mamba Mentality” of doing whatever it takes, being obsessed with one’s craft and treating winning as a life-or-death thing has inspired countless people in various walks of life.

Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze is a rookie who is thought to have star potential. He had 81 receptions for 1,640 yards and 13 touchdowns last season while helping to lead the University of Washington to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

He has joined a Bears roster that is suddenly loaded with more talent than any other the franchise has had in decades. It led to the hit HBO show “Hard Knocks” featuring them this year.

In the second episode of this year’s version of “Hard Knocks,” Odunze told a couple of teenagers about Bryant’s total dedication to preparation.

Via NFL.com:

“Kobe said he never took a shot in a game that he didn’t take a thousand times in practice,” Odunze relayed to the teens. “It’s the same way in football. You should never catch a ball in a game that you ain’t caught a thousand times in practice.”

He also made it clear that preparation also helps with one’s belief in what one is capable of doing during actual games.

“It’s just the preparation, you know what I mean?” he continued. “When you’re doing those things, when you’re doing that hard preparation, keep telling yourself like, ‘Hey, man, I’m out here working!’ The guy across me when it comes game time, he didn’t do that work I was putting in. All those things build confidence.”

Odunze is just one headline-making Bears rookie who is seemingly modeling himself after a legend. Quarterback Caleb Williams, the No. 1 pick in this year’s NFL draft, has reportedly adopted legendary QB Tom Brady’s TB12 Method when it comes to his diet and workout regimen.

Bryant and Brady aren’t exactly bad examples to model after, whether one is a pro athlete or someone who works every day for minimum wage.

Vanessa Bryant reveals custom Kobe Bryant emblem for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics

The memory of late Lakers great Kobe Bryant has been honored as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Now that the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are officially over, the Olympic torch has been handed over to Los Angeles, which will be the site of the 2028 Summer Games.

The city hosted the 1984 Summer Olympics, which was a huge success and happened during a time when many new people were moving to the area. It will look to duplicate that success four years from now.

Several years ago, Los Angeles made a strong push to host the 2024 Games, and it was ultimately awarded the 2028 event. Late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant was part of that push, and in honor of his memory, his widow Vanessa revealed a custom emblem for the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Kobe Bryant didn’t get to suit up for Team USA men’s basketball until 2008 in Beijing, but once he did, it was a huge honor and privilege for him to represent his country. He was a huge reason it won the gold medal in 2008 by outlasting Spain in a tense final-round matchup, and he helped it win the gold again in 2012 in London.

The Black Mamba was also hugely popular in Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics, and as his widow noted, he enjoyed showing up to support the United States during other events, such as swimming and volleyball.

Watch: Kobe Bryant surprises six-year-old child with epilepsy on ‘The View’

Over a year before his death, Kobe Bryant had a very heartwarming encounter with a six-year-old who had epilepsy on national television.

The late Kobe Bryant was one of the greatest basketball players and athletes of all time, and his accomplishments speak for themselves. But in time, he also became a cultural icon, and it wasn’t just because of what he did on the court.

Bryant got involved with plenty of worthwhile causes to help others. He was a big advocate for women’s basketball, especially the WNBA, and he looked to alleviate the homelessness epidemic in the Los Angeles area.

The Hall of Famer also spent some of his finite time with children who had serious illnesses. Over a year before his tragic death, he had a very heartwarming encounter with a very young child who was in need.

Bryson Thompson, who was then six years old, had epilepsy and was given assistance from Jack’s Helping Hand, which supplied him and his family with funds and equipment. His family was so grateful that it collected signed merch from pro athletes to have them auctioned off for the organization.

While on the daytime talk show “The View,” the Thompson family was given autographed jerseys and helmets from NBA and NFL stars to auction off. Then Bryant came onto the set to surprise it with autographed jerseys of his own.

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked Bryant why he showed up, and he gave an extremely thoughtful and unselfish answer.

“We all have a … responsibility to each other, to help one another,” Bryant said. “If you have the opportunity to do that, it’s our responsibility as people to help one another. … It’s [as] simple as that.”

Charitable acts like this from titans such as Bryant enrich our society and give hope to even those who seem very helpless.