Kobe Bryant says he will retire at end of season

On Sunday, Kobe Bryant announced this season would be final one via a poem written for The Players Tribune.

“If I had a burning desire to continue to play, I would”, Bryant said to a packed room of media after the game. My heart can take the pounding. My mind can handle the grind.

“I was honored to have you as a teammate”, said Olympic hurdler and bobsledder Lolo Jones, who posted a photo of her and Bryant posing together in their opening ceremony attire from the 2012 London Games.

Bryant said in an interview on Sirius XM Radio just last week that “if something changes”, he would come back and play next season.

Bryant spent his entire 20-season career with the Lakers, the first National Basketball Association player to stay so long with the same club.

National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver was quick to respond to Bryant’s announcement, the signal that one of the greatest careers in the history of the sport was coming to an end.

Bryant is in his 20th season with the Lakers – a awful team this year, with a 2-13 record.

Scott said he was “shocked” when Bryant informed him on Saturday night that he was going to announce his retirement the following day.

Bryant is the NBA’s highest-paid player this season with a $25 million salary bestowed on him by grateful Lakers owner Jim Buss despite his recent injury problems, and he is keeping his vow never to play for another franchise.

Bryant said Michael Jordan, his idol and the man who he obviously tried to emulate throughout his career, was one of the first people he informed of his decision this summer.

At Staples Center tonight, it was tough to find a Lakers jersey without a number 24 or 8 on it.

On Instagram Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, wrote about his pending retirement: “You can walk away knowing you’ve always played with everything you have, babe”. Of course, Elgin Baylor famously retired nine games into the 1972 season and those Lakers promptly went on an National Basketball Association record 33-game winning streak. I think the game will be easier for him now. “It just caught me off-guard.”…

Rockets 116, Knicks 111, OT: Trevor Ariza hit the tiebreaking three-pointer with 1:14 left in overtime, and Marcus Thornton made two free throws with less than a second left in Houston’s victory over NY. Why, Kobe Bryant, of course. This season, he is posting a career-low of 31.5 in shooting percentage, making him the lowest in the league among players who had taken at least 150 attempts. “Once I accepted that, I was OK and wanted to let everyone know”. Also in his first season, 1996-97, Bryant became at 18 the youngest player to win the NBA’s All-Star weekend slam dunk contest.

“So I’m not surprised that he would make the announcement now”. Once the Lakers broke up his partnership with O’Neal, Bryant rebounded to lead the Lakers to three consecutive trips to the Finals and back-to-back world championships in 2009 and 2010. Colangelo said Bryant’s announcement “doesn’t have any bearing” on the star guard’s status for the Rio Games.