Tonight, we celebrate the kid who came here at 18 years of age, retired at 38, and became probably the best dad we have seen over the past three years. LeBron James stood at center court, flanked by floral arrangments in the shape of 8 and 24, threw out his pre-written notes and spoke from the heart about Kobe Bryant. He said those words in an effort to make Friday night's game against Portland — the first time the Lakers have stepped on a basketball court since the untimely death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and nine others last Sunday in a helicopter crash — into something other than a memorial.