On Wednesday, the nation witnessed the most historic last day of the NBA regular season in its 70th year of existence. Not only did Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors break an NBA best regular season record with its 73rd win to top the 95-96 Chicago Bulls 72 win season, but Kobe Bryant dropped 60 points in his last ever basketball game. Oh and if that wasn’t enough action, the Boston Celtics overcame a 26-point deficit in a playoff-impacting game against the Miami Heat.

 

Not many people believed that the Golden State Warriors were going to top the season they had last year … well that’s exactly what they did. They added the exclamation mark on Wednesday by surpassing Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls with the best ever regular season record of 73-9. Steph Curry hit yet another milestone, hitting 10 three-pointers to cross the 400 mark … the first player to ever do that. While Curry is the engine that makes the Warriors go, the other half of the “Splash Brothers” duo, Klay Thompson, finished the year with 276 of his own threes, giving them the best two shooters in the league.

 

There is a saying that goes “records are meant to be broken.” Well, many experts thought that 72-10 record held by the ’95-’96 Bulls was one of those records that never was going to be broken. The fact that the Warriors did it in their last game, at home, made it all that much more special. Any sport fan, basketball fan or not, should appreciate the level of which Steph Curry and the Warriors are performing … it has never been done before and may very well, never happen again.

 

On the very same night, Kobe Bryant, the Black Mamba, ended his career in historic fashion, dropping 60 points on the Utah Jazz. Easily considered one of the best ever to play the game, Kobe played 20 great seasons, all with the Los Angeles Lakers. Announcing his retirement prior to the season, every game was a farewell to Kobe when he travelled to opposing arenas. Wednesday was the epic finale to the season-long Kobe farewell in true LA / Hollywood fashion. Twitter blew up with Kobe appreciation tweets, SnapChat had a geo-filter announcing it Black Mamba day … StubHub was selling tickets at $27,500 (and $900 to just get into the stadium).

 

Kobe’s career was eventful to say the least. From being one of the first players to be drafted right out of high school, to being accused of sexual assault, to winning 3 consecutive NBA championships, to being named an 18-time NBA All-Star … Kobe Bryant made a name for himself. He certainly had his critics who spoke out against his sexual assault allegations, to the way he conducted his retirement announcement, and even saying his 22-50 shooting performance in his last game was average. No matter what your view of Kobe Bryant is, what cannot be disputed is his impact on this generation of basketball fans, as he will forever be remembered as one of the best to ever play the game.

Kobe Bryant said good bye to the Los Angeles faithful, after completing his 20th and final NBA season on Wednesday night. He went on to score 60 points on 22-50 shooting.
Kobe Bryant said good-bye to the Los Angeles faithful, after completing his 20th and final NBA season on Wednesday night. He went on to score 60 points on 22-50 shooting.

Needless to say it’s been a very exciting month for basketball fans everywhere, as the college basketball season ended in dramatic fashion on April 4th, when Villanova upset UNC on a buzzer beater 77-74 in what was considered one of the best NCAA Championship finals ever. And today, the highly anticipated NBA playoffs begin.

 

While it is hard to imagine the NFL being replaced as the most popular league in this country, the NBA is certainly on its heels.