NBA

Kobe Overwhelms O.J. Mayo, Sends Laker Bench Into Fit Of Ecstasy, Reminds Us All Of His Essential Kobe-Ness

Kobe Bryant’s guarantee that the Lakers would make the playoffs might have been crazy, but he’s sure doing everything in his power to make sure it comes true. His scoring output took a precipitous drop after he was on fire earlier in the year, but over the Lakers’ last two games, he’s regained his hot hand, putting up 78 combined points. Even better, all the scoring – unlike earlier in the season – is translating into wins now, last night in the form of a 103-99 win over the Mavs in Dallas. Kobe played one of his best games of the year, posting 38 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists, but one play above all else epitomized his dominance:

You can already see the Laker bench start to lose it there, but let’s get a better look at just how excited they were to see their 34-year-old leader school the 25-year-old Mayo:

Of course, when you score 38 points, that’s the result of much more than one nice play. A fuller picture of his dominance below (h/t ProBasketballTalk):

It was the kind of performance that had Kobe (justifiably) feeling pretty good. It also had him thinking about a hypothetical scenario Mark Cuban posited Friday, one involving the Lakers saving money by amnestying Kobe. Kobe heard those comments loud and clear. His response, post-win? Equally loud and clear:

Amnesty THAT

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) February 24, 2013

As you know, I love the fake Michael Jordan Twitter almost more than words can say. But if Twitter had existed back in MJ’s heyday and the real guy had one, he probably would have said stuff like this on it all the time. And that would have been great too.

[gifs via Reddit]