Suddenly his in-game concerns regarding Bryant involved more than monitoring his minutes and watching him struggle with his shooting accuracy.
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Scott recalled a moment during the Lakers-Trail Blazers game on Saturday in which Bryant spilled the news.
“We played well, came out in the second half and competed well and got within striking distance”, Bryant said. But Bryant surely didn’t mind that gift as he is from the Philadelphia area and who’s going to turn down a gift from Dr. J?
“I didn’t feel as lively as I did in the last game”, he said after scoring 14 points and blaming his increasingly uncooperative legs. Dwyane said no, as it was a school night, and Kobe said, ‘you know what, bring them, I think it’s going to be my last time here.’ Dwyane brought the boys, they got a lifetime memory after the game taking pictures with Kobe, and the Wade family got a little sneak-preview of Kobe’s retirement announcement before anyone else. “That was the shock part”. I still expect Popovich to do something when Kobe plays his final game in San Antonio.
Kobe Bryant will never again darken the door of Philips Arena as an active player, and even with gobs of fans supporting him, the Hawks sent him out with a loss while simultaneously providing a moment of enjoyment.
“The next day I told him, ‘You really messed me up with that, ‘” Scott said. “He just started laughing”.
“My body knows it’s time to say goodbye”, he said.
Bryant then confirmed his plans afterward to Scott before announcing the news last Sunday.
“It was so casual”.
“He hasn’t been out of the rotation”, Scott said. “[As a] matter [of] fact, he said, ‘You’re the first to know.’ He said, ‘Coach, you’re the first to know that I’m going to announce my retirement'”.
Way too long for 140 characters, but here’s the Kobe story Dwyane Wade told me: This was last month, the night before the Heat hosted the Lakers here in Miami. “It was probably the weirdest game I’ve ever coached”.
Later that night, when the team boarded its charter flight to Los Angeles, Bryant and Scott exchanged a few text messages. Bryant said he hadn’t yet but would soon.
Bryant also displayed bravado afterward, dismissing any concerns he could complete the 2015-16 season nursing his current workload.
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Bryant, who began his Lakers career as an 18-year-old in 1996, has won five National Basketball Association titles and stands third on the league’s all-time scoring list behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone despite being plagued by injuries in recent seasons.
