After one, last, unforgettable, 60-point night, the fans of Los Angeles will have to get used to life without Kobe Bryant. It’s something many of them have never known.
For two decades he has loomed over the city like no other figure, often literally on billboards and the sides of downtown buildings.
In the hours leading up to his last game Wednesday, when Bryant would lead the Lakers to a 101-96 comeback victory over the Utah Jazz with his season-high 60 in one of the greatest farewells by an athlete, many thousands of those fans packed shoulder-to-shoulder into the plaza outside Staples Center.