“Mamba Day.” This is the name given by the city of Los Angeles to the day that pays tribute to the exceptional career of Kobe Bryant. Established in 2016, it takes place every August 24 (24/8), the day after the birthday of the man many consider the greatest player in the history of the Lakers, who died on January 26, 2020 in a helicopter crash along with eight other people, including his daughter Gianna.
To pay tribute to the “Black Mamba”, we look back in figures at an exceptional career that began in November 1996. He was just 18 years old.
1 regular season MVP title. That was in 2008, and that may not seem like much in the context of a 20-year career.
2 Finals MVP titles won in 2009 and 2010.
3 gold medals won with Team USA. One in 2007 at the American Championship, then two at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and then in 2012 in London.
4 times All-Star Game MVP. An NBA record he shares with Bob Pettit.
5 NBA championship titles including a “three peat” in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and a “back-to-back” in 2009 and 2010. In history, there are only 26 players to have won at least as many rings during their career.
9 All-Defensive First Team selections. While he has been selected to one of the two fives a total of 12 times, his 9 selections to the best defensive five is a record he shares with Michael Jordan, Gary Payton and Kevin Garnett. In 1999/00, he also became the youngest player to receive this honor.
18 consecutive All-Star Game selections
11 All-NBA First Team selections, two short of LeBron James, who holds the all-time record.
12 3-point shots made in a single game. It was on January 7, 2003, against Seattle and it is an NBA record that he shared for a long time with Donyell Marshall, before Stephen Curry and then Klay Thompson seized it.
15 selections to one of the three All-NBA Teams. While he was elected 11 times to the first, he was also elected twice to the second and twice to the third, bringing his total to 15. Two fewer than LeBron James, who now holds the absolute record with 18.
17 Player of the Month titles to which we could also add 33 Player of the Week titles although neither are records.
18 consecutive All-Star selections and that, on the other hand, is a record tied with LeBron James, as are his 15 ASGs started in the starting five (once as a substitute and twice as an injured player). On the other hand, he falls just one short of the total record set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was called up to the All-Star Game 19 times in his career.
18 and 158that's the age in years and days that Kobe Bryant was when he first started and to this day, he is still the youngest starter in history.
18 and 16911 days later, he also became the youngest player to win the Slam Dunk Contest and again, the record still stands.
19 and 169the following year he became and still remains the youngest player to start an All-Star Game.
25.0 his career points per game average, the 13th best in history.
Nine straight games with 40 points or more in February 2003
20 years spent in the NBA and especially, 20 years spent with the Lakers. In 2016, no player in history had played as many seasons in a single franchise. Dirk Nowitzki has since surpassed him with 21 seasons in the Mavericks jersey, and Udonis Haslem will equal him this season.
35.4 points per game, that's Kobe Bryant's average during the 2005-2006 season, when he won the first of his two league scoring titles. Obviously, this is his best career mark and the 9th in history.
40. Between February 6 and 23, 2003, Kobe Bryant achieved the feat of stringing together 9 consecutive games with at least 40 points on the scoreboard! With the exception of Michael Jordan (also 9 times in 1986-87), only Wilt Chamberlain had done better with streaks of 14 games during the 1961-62 season, then 10 games in 1962-63. Over this period, Kobe Bryant averaged 44 points!
50 points (or more) in a game is already exceptional, but in 4 consecutive games, it is downright unreal. Yet this is what Kobe Bryant achieved in March 2007. After his 65 points against Portland, he followed up with 50 against Minnesota, then 60 against Memphis and finally 50 against the Hornets (an average of 56.3 points!). In history, only Wilt Chamberlain (four times) has done better.
60 points. This is the record for points scored by a player in his last career game, and it has been owned by Kobe Bryant since April 13, 2016. In a surreal atmosphere, and after a mediocre season, the Lakers guard sets the Staples Center alight one last time against Jazz players on vacation.
62. That's the total number of points scored by Kobe Bryant against Dallas on December 20, 2005. The feat? The Lakers guard had reached that total in just three quarters (33 minutes)! He alone had scored one more point than the entire Mavs! But that was nothing compared to what he would accomplish a month later…
81. On January 22, Kobe did the unthinkable. Against Toronto, he became the second player in history to score more than 80 points in a game. With his 28 of 46 shooting, he finished with 81 points, simply the second best performance in history behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100 points.
The record holder for points scored at Christmas
122. That's the number of times Kobe Bryant scored 40 or more points during his career. Only Michael Jordan (173) and Wilt Chamberlain (271) have done better. Note that of those 122 games, he finished 27 with at least 50 points and 6 with at least 60.
395. That's the total number of points scored by Kobe Bryant on “Christmas Day” and it was a record for these iconic Christmas games in the NBA. LeBron James surpassed it in 2021 with a total of 422 points.
1,346 regular season games played, the 15th total in history.
4,010 lost balls, only the Jazz duo, Karl Malone (4,524) and John Stockton (4,244), have lost more.
4,499 shots attempted in the playoffs, that's only two more than Michael Jordan, making Kobe the all-time runner-up in the category, behind LeBron James. He's also runner-up to LeBron James for the most missed shots with 2,485.
5,640 points scored in the playoffs, it is the 4th best mark behind the usual LeBron James (7,631 points), Michael Jordan (5,987) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (5,762). Let us recall that Kobe Bryant took part in 15 playoff campaigns.
8,378the number of free throws made by Kobe Bryant (out of 10,011 attempts), the third highest total in history.
8,641 minutes is the amount of time Kobe Bryant has spent on the court in the playoffs, ranking fourth behind LeBron James (11,035), Tim Duncan (9,370) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (8,851).
14,481. Of course, to score as much as Kobe Bryant did, you have to take a lot of shots and in the pile, there are some that you miss. In this case for the “Black Mamba”, this figure rises to 14,481! He is the player in history who has missed the most shots in his career.
33,583. Kobe is the 4th leading scorer in history behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and LeBron James. The latter surpassed Kobe on January 25, 2020, the day before the tragic helicopter crash.
48,637 minutes played, the 7th highest total in history.
| Kobe Bryant | Percentage | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Party | Int | Bp | Ct | Pts |
| 1996-97 | LAL | 71 | 16 | 41.7 | 37.5 | 81.9 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 0.3 | 7.6 |
| 1997-98 | LAL | 79 | 26 | 42.8 | 34.1 | 79.4 | 1.0 | 2.1 | 3.1 | 2.5 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 15.4 |
| 1998-99 | LAL | 50 | 38 | 46.5 | 26.7 | 83.9 | 1.1 | 4.2 | 5.3 | 3.8 | 3.1 | 1.4 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 19.9 |
| 1999-00 | LAL | 66 | 38 | 46.8 | 31.9 | 82.1 | 1.6 | 4.7 | 6.3 | 4.9 | 3.3 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 0.9 | 22.5 |
| 2000-01 | LAL | 68 | 41 | 46.4 | 30.5 | 85.3 | 1.5 | 4.3 | 5.9 | 5.0 | 3.3 | 1.7 | 3.2 | 0.6 | 28.5 |
| 2001-02 | LAL | 80 | 38 | 46.9 | 25.0 | 82.9 | 1.4 | 4.1 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 2.9 | 1.5 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 25.2 |
| 2002-03 | LAL | 82 | 42 | 45.1 | 38.3 | 84.3 | 1.3 | 5.6 | 6.9 | 5.9 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 30.0 |
| 2003-04 | LAL | 65 | 38 | 43.8 | 32.7 | 85.2 | 1.6 | 3.9 | 5.5 | 5.1 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 0.4 | 24.0 |
| 2004-05 | LAL | 66 | 41 | 43.3 | 33.9 | 81.6 | 1.4 | 4.5 | 5.9 | 6.0 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 4.1 | 0.8 | 27.6 |
| 2005-06 | LAL | 80 | 41 | 45.0 | 34.7 | 85.0 | 0.9 | 4.4 | 5.3 | 4.5 | 2.9 | 1.8 | 3.1 | 0.4 | 35.4 |
| 2006-07 | LAL | 77 | 41 | 46.3 | 34.4 | 86.8 | 1.0 | 4.7 | 5.7 | 5.4 | 2.7 | 1.4 | 3.3 | 0.5 | 31.6 |
| 2007-08 ★ | LAL | 82 | 39 | 45.9 | 36.1 | 84.0 | 1.2 | 5.2 | 6.3 | 5.4 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 3.1 | 0.5 | 28.3 |
| 2008-09 | LAL | 82 | 36 | 46.7 | 35.1 | 85.6 | 1.1 | 4.1 | 5.2 | 4.9 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 2.6 | 0.5 | 26.8 |
| 2009-10 | LAL | 73 | 39 | 45.6 | 32.9 | 81.1 | 1.1 | 4.3 | 5.4 | 5.0 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 3.2 | 0.3 | 27.0 |
| 2010-11 | LAL | 82 | 34 | 45.1 | 32.3 | 82.8 | 1.0 | 4.1 | 5.1 | 4.7 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 3.0 | 0.2 | 25.3 |
| 2011-12 | LAL | 58 | 39 | 43.0 | 30.3 | 84.5 | 1.1 | 4.3 | 5.4 | 4.6 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 3.5 | 0.3 | 27.9 |
| 2012-13 | LAL | 78 | 39 | 46.3 | 32.4 | 83.9 | 0.9 | 4.7 | 5.6 | 6.0 | 2.2 | 1.4 | 3.7 | 0.3 | 27.4 |
| 2013-14 | LAL | 6 | 30 | 42.5 | 18.8 | 85.7 | 0.3 | 4.0 | 4.3 | 6.3 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 5.7 | 0.2 | 13.8 |
| 2014-15 | LAL | 35 | 35 | 37.3 | 29.3 | 81.3 | 0.7 | 4.9 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 1.9 | 1.3 | 3.7 | 0.2 | 22.3 |
| 2015-16 | LAL | 66 | 28 | 35.8 | 28.5 | 82.6 | 0.6 | 3.1 | 3.7 | 2.8 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 17.6 |
| Total | 1346 | 36 | 44.7 | 32.9 | 83.7 | 1.1 | 4.1 | 5.2 | 4.7 | 2.5 | 1.4 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 25.0 | |
How to read the stats? GM = Games Played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Shots Made / Shots Attempted; 3pts = 3-pointers / 3-pointers Attempted; LF = Free Throws Made / Free Throws Attempted; Off = Offensive Rebound; Def = Defensive Rebound; Tot = Total Rebounds; Pd = Assists; Fte: Personal Fouls; Int = Steals; Bp = Loose Balls; Ct: Blocks; Pts = Points.
