Kobe Bryant, one of the most influential figures in the history of basketball, played 20 years in his NBA career. Tragically, he passed away in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020. Since then, NBA fans have honored the basketball legend on the 24th of every August, the eighth month of the year. Bryant wore the numbers 8 and 24 during his playing days.

With incredible shot-making ability, unmatched clutchness, and five championships, Bryant had just about a perfect career.

Bryant has more iconic moments and important basketball plays than almost anyone else to ever play the game. 8/24 is Kobe Day, and what better way to honor Bryant than to look at the 24 best moments of his career?

24. Lakers announce they will build a statue in his honor

On Aug. 24, 2023, – Kobe Day – the Los Angeles Lakers and Bryant's wife, Vanessa Bryant, announced an update for the the plan to build a statue in Kobe's honor. The statue will be built outside of the Crypto.com Arena. Bryant played all 20 of his seasons with the Lakers franchise, so it is only right that he will be immortalized outside of the “house that Kobe built.”

While this moment technically occurred after Bryant's career, it really is a culmination of everything he did during not only his playing career but his overall life. The statue will be unveiled on Feb. 8, 2024, or 2/8/24. The 2 represents the number of Bryant's daughter, Gigi Bryant, who passed away in the same accident as Kobe.

23. Dunk on Dwight Howard

Bryant always seemed to get the best of Dwight Howard. Bryant's Lakers bested Howard and the Orlando Magic in the 2009 NBA Finals, but their rivalry started long before then. In fact, Bryant gave Howard a “welcome to the NBA” moment of sorts. During Howard's rookie season in 2005, Bryant dunked on the center.

It was one of many poster dunks in Bryant's career, but this one was especially aesthetically pleasing as Bryant hung on the rim while towering over the shoulders of the rookie center. Even more impressively, Howard was one of the best defensive players in the NBA at the time.

22. Lefty three-pointer

Bryant was willing to take any shot, and he usually made them. A perfect example of this is when Bryant got trapped in the corner with the shot clock winding down against the Dallas Mavericks. The only way for Kobe to get a shot up was for the superstar to turn around and send up a prayer of a shot with his offhand.

Of course, the shot went in, making it one of the best shooting highlights in a career full of shotmaking.

21. 360 behind-the-back dunk

Bryant's behind-the-back to a 360 poster dunk was one of the coolest dunks in the history of the NBA. In a game against the Denver Nuggets, Bryant used a euro-step move while hiding the ball from his opponent behind his back before slamming a reverse dunk on Vincent Yarbrough. The creativity was dunk-contest worthy.

20. Dunk on Yao Ming

Yao Ming was 7 foot 6 inches. That didn't stop Bryant – one of the best in-game dunkers ever – from slamming it on Ming during the center's rookie year. To add a cherry on top, Bryant scored 52 total points in the game.

19. The scowl

In a career full of iconic moments, Kobe Bryant also had an iconic look. Often times, after hitting a dagger or making a clutch play, Bryant would make a viscous facial expression in which he would scowl, putting his bottom teeth behind his top teeth in an almost animalistic way.

The first time he did this was after hitting a closely contested three-point shot over J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets. Bryant's scissor-kick shot gave the Lakers the lead with less than one minute to go in a Western Conference Finals matchup in 2009.

18. Wins MVP

A lot of people consider Kobe Bryant a top-three player in NBA history, yet he was only awarded one MVP trophy. While it is fair to argue that he was robbed of the award more than once, Bryant was able to bring home the MVP in 2008, a season in which he scored 28.3 points per game.

17. Kobe and Shaquille O'Neal bury the hatchet

Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal had a lot of great moments together. The game's best duo ever won three straight Finals together, but things eventually go ugly between the teammates. The falling out was well documented, and their beef last years. Years later, the duo finally made amends and put their differences aside in an on-air interview.

16. 1997 dunk contest

The Black Mamba earned a lot of trophies during his career. One that really put him on the map was his 1997 dunk contest victory during his rookie season. Bryant proved to the NBA early on that he was a highlight reel machine with some of the best aerial acrobatics the league would ever see.

15. One-legged three-point game-winner

Game winners and highlight real shots are synonymous with the name Kobe Bryant, so it makes sense that he combined the two on a buzzer-beater against the Miami Heat. With time dwindling down, Bryant jumped off of one leg to get off his shot at the buzzer.

It nailed the backboard and went straight in, giving the Lakers a miraculous win. To make the moment even more cool, his defender was Dwyane Wade, the NBA's next-best shooting guard at the time.

14. 61 points at Madison Square Garden

All superstars need a big moment in the Garden. Bryant's came when he scored 61 points on the New York Knicks in 2009, breaking the record for most points scored at the venue.

13. 40-8-8 in Game One of the Finals

Kobe was often criticized for not winning without Shaquille O'Neal. He shut those critics up in the 2009 NBA Finals. In Game One against the Orlando Magic, Kobe nearly had a 40-point triple-double. He set the precedent early that it was going to be his series.

12. Three-pointers record

Known more for his mid-range game, Bryant was also lethal from behind the line. However, he was shooting just 28 percent from deep during the first 34 games of the 2002-03 season. Bryant quickly turned that around, making a then-record 12 three-pointers against the Seattle Supersonics.

11. Game winner in 2006 first round

The Phoenix Suns rested players at the end of the regular season to ensure they would face the Lakers in the first round of the 2006 playoffs. Bryant wasn't too happy about that, and poking that bear is something you probably shouldn't do.

Up 2-1 in the series, the Lakers trailed with 7.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter of game four. Phoenix had possession, but the Lakers were able to strip the ball from Steve Nash. Bryant received the ball and converted on a high-difficulty floater to tie the game with only 0.7 seconds left in regulation. In overtime, the Lakers once again found themselves trailing late.

Down by one with 6.1 seconds to go, Bryant's heroics once again shined through. Bryant collected a tip-off at center court and never considered passing the ball, taking a double-team head-on before rising up for a game-winning mid-range pull-up jump shot. The shot was worthy of one of Mike Breen's famous “Bang” calls.

10. Sitting in the shower after the 2001 NBA Finals

The picture of Kobe Bryant sitting in the showers, Larry O'Brien Trophy in hand, is one of the most iconic snapshots in NBA history. The picture was taken after Bryant's Lakers had just won the 2001 NBA Finals, but the backstory is even deeper.

Bryant had a falling out with his parents over his young marriage to Vanessa, causing the star's family to not show up to his Finals games. The picture captures Bryant taking in the moment during a time in which he had a lot on his mind.

9. Runs over Pau Gasol

Bryant and Pau Gasol were like brothers. Teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers, Gasol knew that Bryant always meant business. Nothing was more important than winning for Kobe. When Team USA was coming off a disappointing 2004 Olympics, Bryant joined the squad for 2008.

In the championship game, he faced Gasol and Team Spain. On the first play of the game, Bryant proved he was there to win, running right through a Gasol screen and trucking the big man into the ground.

8. Matt Barnes inbound pass

Bryant is known for his stone-cold killer approach to basketball. This was perhaps demonstrated best when Matt Barnes faked an inbound pass right to Bryant's head. The average human would move out of the way or at least flinch.

Bryant wasn't the average human. The Black Mamba remained straight-faced while chewing his gum and waiting for the inbound pass.

7. Four straight 50-point games

A 50-point game has only been achieved by 162 players in NBA history. In 2007, the scoring machine accomplished this feat in back-to-back-to-back-to-back games.

6. Sinks free throws after a torn Achilles

Bryant was known to play through pain, but playing with sprained muscles and injured fingers is different than playing with the worst injury in sports. Bryant tore his Achilles, yet he stayed in the game to shoot his free throws. He made both.

5. Alley-oop to Shaq

Kobe was known more for shooting than for passing, and many even criticized him, calling him a selfish player who wouldn't pass. But perhaps the greatest highlight from the Shaq and Kobe era was, in fact, a pass. The Lakers completed a comeback in the 2000 Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trailblazers, and the dagger was an alley-oop pass from Bryant to O'Neal.

After flushing it home, O'Neal famously ran down the court with both hands in the air. It was a signature moment for O'Neal and Bryant before things soured in their relationship.

4. Outscores the Dallas Mavericks by himself

In 2005, the Lakers beat the Mavericks by a score of 112-90. While there isn't much significant about the final score, it was the first three quarters that will forever be remembered. Kobe Bryant played 32 minutes and didn't check into the game in the fourth quarter.

In those three-quarters that he did play, he scored 62 points. The Mavericks scored 61 points as a team during that span, meaning Bryant outscored an entire team by himself.

3. 55 points on his idol

Kobe Bryant modeled his game after Michael Jordan, so it had to be satisfying when he scored 55 points on his idol and the Washington Wizards.

2. Final game of Kobe's career

In 2016, Bryant was well past his prime. That didn't stop him from showing he still had a little gas left in the tank, scoring an NBA season-high 60 points in his last NBA game ever. He outscored the entire Utah Jazz roster, 23-21, in the fourth-quarter win. What a way to go out.

1. 81 points

Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in an NBA game. Not much more needs to be said.