In a post on the Players Tribune website, Bryant wrote, “This season is all I have left to give”.
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There’s no more wondering now.
Sports Illustrated reported Bryant said he would be honored to make Team USA and play in the August games, but isn’t “obsessing over” the opportunity. Lakers coach Byron Scott said he thought Bryant would have played on for at least another season.
Still, Hibbert exercised his player option for $15.6 million, knowing that his days in IN were coming to a close.
“My heart can handle the pounding/My mind can handle the grind/But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye”, Bryant said.
But also said, “But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer”. “For somebody like me, I want to know what has allowed him to do it; off the court, balance, everything”. The good and the bad. “We developed great chemistry, a great relationship and great respect for each other”.
When asked about his lasting impact on the league, Bryant named checked a handful of younger players, including the Blazers current starting backcourt.
Hibbert and the rest of the Lakers had to carry on under Bryant’s huge cloud, something they have had to do all season. He’s a legend, and all I hear is about how bad he’s playing, how bad he’s shooting and it’s time for him to hang it up. “Watching him so far this season, it’s almost impossible to imagine him making the roster on merit”. And even this season, back issues have kept him from playing as much as he would like. “You can put a team around a guy to help a guy, especially late in his career”.
And so in January, after inuring that right shoulder dunking against the Pelicans in New Orleans, he just used the left one.
CBS2/KCAL9’s Jeff Nguyen reports fans like Jay Schwartz of Oak Park are plunking down big cash hoping to get one more look at the Lakers legend in person. The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday and afterwards Bryant gave a lengthy and reflective postgame interview, in which several Trail Blazers were mentioned.
The Lakers’ next road game is, perhaps not coincidentally given the timing of Bryant’s announcement, on Tuesday in Philadelphia – his hometown. At a dedication ceremony for the Kobe Bryant Gymnasium five years ago, Bryant told the crowd at the high school: “This is where I came from”. “It’s always a different emotion there than anywhere else”. It was a sad and perhaps fitting wrap for Bryant, recalling the first very visible moment in the NBA’s eye – the final game of his rookie season when he threw up an air ball at the end of regulation and then three more air balls in an overtime loss at Utah, eliminating the Lakers from the playoffs.
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Bryant has averaged more than 25 points per game in his 1,293 National Basketball Association matches.
