LOS ANGELES – In a career we foolishly thought already had everything, Kobe Bryant provided all that was missing Wednesday.
The punctuation mark.
An exclamation point.
A ridiculous, impossible, only-in-L.A. exclamation point.
In the most meaningful meaningless game in NBA history, Bryant scored 60 points, including 23 in the fourth quarter, as the Lakers came back to beat Utah, 101-96, on the final night of his playing career.
Somehow, on the worst team in franchise history, he lifted an otherwise lost season to the heights equal to some of the most memorable events in Los Angeles sports history.