The Kobe Bryant farewell tour is underway, and Bryant spent his first night in Philadelphia visiting Larry's Steaks. For the past few years, Bryant had been strictly adhering to his diet and avoided eating out on the road, even in his hometown of Philadelphia. But this is the last time. After officially stating the year no. 20 would be the final season, Bryant is allowed to indulge a little bit.
Tuesday at 4 p.m. Pacific Time, the Los Angeles Lakers face the Philadelphia 76ers in a game that features far and away the worst two teams in the NBA. Regardless of which team wins, these two teams will still hold their standings as the worst two teams in basketball at the end of the night.
Of course, Tuesday night is about more than a game or even a season. It's about two decades of basketball from one of the greatest players of all time. Bryant's farewell tour may have been suddenly announced on Sunday with fans in attendance getting a letter from the 37-year-old, but the real tour gets underway on Tuesday in Philadelphia.
Players like LeBron James have already started circling their calendars for games against Bryant, and if the superstars are doing it, one can only imagine the average NBA player is glued to a tablet every time Bryant takes the court.
"I think it'll be very emotional and very fun," James said about playing Bryant twice this season. "Obviously I want to win and he wants to win, too. But some things about that will be much bigger than a win or a loss."
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Watching the Lakers effectively serves as bidding an elongated, painful farewell to Bryant. At 2-14, the Lakers and Bryant have not displayed nearly enough on the court. However, Bryant's announcement changed the feeling around this team and this season. The end is coming, though, and the average fan is not the only segment of the population struggling to accept life after Bryant.
"It won't really make sense next year when you see the Lakers and you don't see Kobe in a uniform," James said. "Twenty years, 13 out of my career. It's almost half of my life I've seen him in a Lakers uniform as a professional. It's going to be pretty weird."
