Russell Westbrook And Kevin Durant Gave Kobe A Gift Before His Final Game Against OKC

Kobe Bryant has two more games in his basketball career. It’s still so weird to remember that we’re a little more than two days away from the end of Kobe’s basketball career, but we’re finally into the final days of one of the best careers the NBA has ever seen.

But before Kobe gets to the end, he has to get through the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers are in OKC tonight to take on the third seed in the Western Conference, and before the game tipped off tonight, Kobe was met by the Thunder’s two stars and received a gift.

Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant represented the team and met with Bryant to present him with a gift from the entire organization. It was a book, and inside was a collection of kind words from the rest of the roster.

The Kobe Retirement tour hasn’t featured a ton of public gifts like this. If anything, Kobe is the one giving things out, as he keeps signing autographs for other players. But there’s something poetic about Durant and Westbrook being the two guys who publicly give a gift like this to Bryant. Durant is the guy who many people think took the title of “best scorer on earth” from Kobe (depending on how you view Carmelo Anthony, of course), while Westbrook always gets compared to Mamba because of the way he carries himself on the basketball court.

Also, shout out to the entire Thunder organization because this is a really cool way to give something that’s both unique and meaningful to Kobe. Once the two teams face off tonight, all of this goodwill goes out the window, but for now, this is a great gift.