Well, that was an NBA regular season that ended with a bang. The Golden State Warriors recorded an unprecedented 73rd victory, but somehow it seemed less astonishing than Kobe Bryant ending his 20-year Lakers career by scoring 60.

60!

Kobe spent much of the season struggling to be something more than a subpar player who a really bad team had decided to indulge. His shooting percentage cratered, and a case could be made the Lakers were better when he didn’t play.

And then he pours in 60.

No, the Utah Jazz were playing for nothing but pride (and apparently not much of it) but, still, 60 by the 37-year-old man? On 50 shots?

Go to the video, if you did not see the game — all 60 points are there, including free throws.
It isn’t often a great player goes out with that sort of memorable performance. Ted Williams hit a home run in his final at-bat. Peyton Manning won a Super Bowl in his last game. But most of the time, when the end comes, the former superstar looks old and tired and like guy who waited a year too long.

The NBA says no Hall-of-Famer had scored 30 in his final NBA game. Let alone 60. And no one had taken 50 shots in a game in 33 seasons.

As I suggested a few days ago, I am confident “most victories in a season” is the sort of record that sticks in the mind of NBA fans, and now the Warriors own that territory, pushing aside Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.

But in the context of two games being played at the same time, Kobe’s out-of-the-blue performance seemed more compelling. The Warriors were up by 20 at halftime of their game with the Memphis Grizzlies, so it was clear early that 73 was going to be easy.

Meantime, Kobe kept stacking up the points, down in Los Angeles, and damn if our gaze wasn’t wrenched those 300 miles south. He made 22-of-50 field goals, including a couple of drives to the basket in which his age (and failing legs) were on display as he was unable to throw down even one dunk — as he would have done even a few years ago.

A big day in global sports. The club competition that means more than any other in the world, the Uefa version of the Champions League, saw a huge upset when Atletico Madrid, always gritty under coach Diego Simeone, defeated defending champions Barcelona 2-0 to reach the semifinals of the tournament. It was just a few weeks ago that Barcelona had not suffered a defeat in 39 matches over six months — in all competitions.

Meanwhile, Bayern Munich hung on to oust Benfica of Portugal 3-2 on aggregate to also reach the semifinals.

The final four are Real Madrid, Manchester City, Atletico and Bayern, which is not a lineup most of us would have expected a few months ago. But there you are, not quite The Same Old Same Old, which is a good thing for soccer.

And it was a good thing for the NBA to see the Warriors get to 73, and an even better thing to have Kobe Bryant go out with that blizzard of points in Staples Center.