Kobe Bryant says he’ll retire after season

Adding his voice to the chorus of past and present NBA players singing Kobe Bryant’s praises in recent days, LeBron James spoke of the Laker as an inspiration, friend and rival on Tuesday, expressing just how upset he is that the two never matched up in the NBA Finals.

Durant says the media claims he doesn’t know “how they work”, but it doesn’t bother him.

But don’t expect Bryant to start crying for the world to see.

“When he called me this afternoon and told me and it became a reality, it hurt”, Buss said Sunday. It’s important to go through that progression, because I think that’s where you really learn about the self.

“Hope you can live a little bit more”.

If the Lakers fail to make the play-offs this year, which it looks very much like they won’t, his final game is set to be a home match up against the Utah Jazz on the 13th of April.

This trip has the potential to be draining for Bryant, and it will be up to Lakers coach Byron Scott to keep a close eye on the 37-year-old guard. They remember witnessing his three-peat with the Lakers in the early 2000s, his 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors and at least some of his 17 All-Star game appearances.

Bryant said he knew the time has come, and it will be hard for him to continue. “You guys treated one of our legends like sh*t, and I didn’t really like it. Hopefully now, you can start being nice to him now that he chose to retire after this year”.

5x NBA Champion, 2x Finals MVP, 2x Scoring Champ, 1x NBA MVP, 17x All Star, 11x 1st team All NBA and 9x 1st Defense. Just so many, so many great memories there.

But a 23-point haul from forward Robert Covington laid the foundation for a deserved 103-91 76ers victory as Bryant and the Lakers tumbled to 2-15, the worst record in the Western Conference.

James revealed Bryant had influenced him at every stage of his basketball career, from being someone he had revered as a schoolboy as well as an opponent and USA Olympic team-mate who had set the standards to aspire to.

“He’s nuts about it”, Lions receiver Lance Moore said about Slay’s infatuation with Bryant. “If that’s something that interests then absolutely I would talk to him about it”.

“I liked Kobe until he said he wanted to rip our hearts out”, said Michael Rivers, a part-time season ticketholder.

Tonight’s game ball goes to Lord Robert Covington, the Sixer who kept the team in the game even when the offense was struggling, but was also tasked on guarding Kobe for most of the night, holding his own.