The Game That Kobe Bryant Faced PRIME Carmelo Anthony! Game 1 Duel Highlights 2009 WCF - EPIC!

Miss this era of basketball 1 superstar vs another superstar no super team

Melo’s shooting form is one of the greatest forms I’ve seen💪🏽

I love the old game. Mid range used as a go to signature and the 3 ball used as a well needed finisher.

This era of basketball was magical every team just about had a star anyone was a contender now it’s a social media war and who can stack a team the most smh

Kobe said “ melo is one of the hardest player to guard “ and i just see this after kobe passed away. Im devastated. Rest easy kobe we love you 🐍

The fact that Melo was 2 games away of the finals wow no way he was losing to the magic, th real nba finals was this series

It's refreshing and beautiful seeing the tough competitive play between these two teams. The league has totally changed the game today. Much respect to Carmelo and Kobe...pure greatness on both parts.

THIS is real basketball and they need to bring these rules back. No more soft calls and weak fouls

I love how physical they were without getting called for a foul or even starting fights . I miss this basketball era

Denver Melo was offensively unstoppable. Idgaf what nobody say. One of the 10 greatest scorers ever.

I remember watching Melo as a kid and this man was just WOW. Gotta give him his flowers now man one of the greatest scorers of my generation!!!!!!!!!!!👌🏿☺️🙌🏿👏🏿🙏🏿

Who's here after the Nuggets reached Wcf and will face the LA Lakers again 🔥 2009: Melo vs Kobe 2020: Jokic/Murray vs LeBron/AD

Damn Melo’s jumper is the smoothest jumper I’ve ever seen

The disrespect these 2 get is shameful. Both were elite during their primes

Billiups is one of my favorite players of the ‘00s. A brilliant decision-maker with a high AST:TO ratio, a good defender and an excellent outside shooter. The fact that the Nuggets reached their all-time NBA pinnacle (not counting their heights in the ABA) can be largely attributed to the presence of Billups. The ‘80s all-offense-no-defense Nuggets never really scared the Lakers. The ‘90s all-defense-no-offense Nuggets never really scared anybody. The ‘10s Nuggets vacillated between terrible and mediocre, only getting out of the 1st rd. once in ‘19. The inexperienced-and-totally-gassed ‘20 Nuggets presented little challenge to the ‘20 Lakers in the WCFs. This George Karl-Chauncey/Melo team in ‘09 was top 8 in offense and defense, and gave a defending-Conference-Champ, soon-to-be b2b champion Lakers team the best competition the Nuggets ever gave any team in the NBA Conference Finals.

Just clean physicality of the game in this era was amazing. This is how basketball should be played.

I loved when the league was this competitive doesn’t even feel the same anymore

Back when the mid range game was actually used more often

It’s sad that you don’t see battles like that anymore two epic stars going toe to toe

Watching this brings back a lot of fond memories of witnessing Kobe's greatness throughout his storied career. It's still hard to believe he's gone, but he will always be remembered as one of the fiercest professional basketball players of all time and the very best to dawn the purple and gold for the Lakers. That's saying a lot, considering how much I respect Magic Johnson who is right up there as one of the greatest Lakers ever.