He decided at age 17 to jump directly from the prep ranks to the National Basketball Association, only the sixth player and first guard to make such a leap.
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Kobe Bryant’s retirement has had an immediate and positive affect on the box office.
[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]Kobe Bryant has spent his entire career with the Lakers even though he was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets right out of high school back in 1996.
Lakers head coach Byron Scott, who was Bryant’s teammate during the latter’s rookie season, said he was shocked when his player told him of the decision on Saturday.
“I’m ready to let you go“, wrote Bryant, who trails only Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone on the NBA’s scoring list.
The long Thanksgiving weekend is almost over, and the Los Angeles Lakers host the Indiana Pacers to close out the month of Novemeber. Lakers fans dared to dream of a storybook finish to a night that began with each fan receiving a letter from Bryant, thanking them for 20 years of support.
Bryant, 37, has a career scoring average of 25.3 points per game.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Kobe Bryant drained a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left in a one-point game, and the Lakers’ crowd roared with a mix of excitement and nostalgia for the transcendent moments of its beloved star’s now-finite career.
In the 2007-08 season, Bryant backed off trade demand talk and fought through a finger injury to earn NBA Most Valuable Player honors.
“Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest players in the history of our game”, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “I don’t think there will be another guy like him”, Harden said.
But Bryant’s clarity on his future ensures the Lakers will have enough cap space to pursue two marquee free agents next summer. I honor it as I play today and for the rest of this season. His last game in Boston, where the basketball-savvy fans have long loathed the Lakers but will nearly surely salute Bryant in his finale there, is December 30.
The Lakers’ next road game is, perhaps not coincidentally given the timing of Bryant’s announcement, on Tuesday in Philadelphia – his hometown. Bryant intends to play out the season, but the third-leading scorer in league history missed his first six shots and went 2 for 15 in the first half.
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Defensively, the Lakers have struggled to handle dynamic guards.
