On Friday night, Luka Doncic had his best game as an NBA player, dropping 73 points on unprecedented efficiency numbers to lead the way for the Dallas Mavericks in a 148-143 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. This may seem like an ordinary day to some, but today marks the fourth year since the legendary Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant tragically passed away, and all throughout Doncic's stellar outing, honoring the Black Mamba seemed to be on his mind.

In fact, during his postgame presser, Doncic revealed how much Bryant meant and continues to mean for him. Furthermore, the Mavericks star expressed how special it is for him to put up the best scoring night of his NBA career to this point on this date to honor what the late great Lakers legend meant to the game of basketball.

“It's amazing, man. It's very special. We all love Kobe man. It was a big tragedy, I can't believe it's been four years already. So it's special, you know, to feel on the same day. But obviously, I wish he was here,” Doncic said, via Landon Thomas of Mavs Fan For Life.

Kobe Bryant, even four years after his passing, continues to make such a huge impact among today's generation of NBA superstars, with Jayson Tatum and Devin Booker joining Luka Doncic among those whose games were strongly influenced by the Black Mamba.

As Landon Thomas pointed out, the Mavericks star continues to pay tribute to Bryant via his Twitter (X) profile. To this day, Doncic is still using the picture of the Lakers legend and her daughter Gianna as his profile picture and then a picture of him with the Black Mamba as his header photo.

Luka Doncic's performance on Friday night against the Hawks is something that Kobe Bryant would have been proud of had he been around to witness it. Doncic was commanding double and triple teams in a Bryant-esque manner, but there the Mavericks star was, still dominating despite all the defensive attention he commands.

And who knows, perhaps one day, the Mavericks star unseats Bryant as the owner of the second-highest single-game scoring total in the league.