LOS ANGELES -- Jack Nicholson looked on from his usual courtside seat beside music legend Lou Adler, each donning sunglasses, as always. NBA commissioner Adam Silver stood along the baseline, a hand over his heart. Fans packed the Staples Center stands around them, leaving few empty seats. And as a young woman, aglow in a spotlight, began belting out the national anthem, one of those fans shouted down into the darkness, “We love you Kobe!”
But for the first time in two decades' worth of season openers for the NBA’s glamour franchise, Kobe Bryant wasn’t anywhere to be found.