The Lakers guard wrote a poem entitled “Dear Basketball” on The Players Tribune , Derek Jeter’s athlete-generated media site which Bryant has partnered with in the past. In it, he wrote about everything basketball has meant to him and made very clear that he will be hanging up his sneakers after this season — which has gone rather poorly by his (or anyone’s) standards.
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Bryant is averaging 15.7 points a game on 31.5 percent shooting for the 2-13 Lakers. Coach Byron Scott has stuck by him, but it’s clear he is not the player he once was. Bryant is third in NBA history in career points and has won five championships.
Bryant still could play again — at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he still is under consideration for Team USA and a run at his third gold medal, according to ESPN.
Here’s an excerpt from his poem :
NBA commissioner Adam Silver issued a statement on Bryant’s announcement:
And that’s OK. I’m ready to let you go. I want you to know now So we both can savor every moment we have left together. The good and the bad.
As Complex Sports’ Russ Bengtson points out , Michael Jordan issued a similar letter upon his third and final retirement from the game. “Dear Basketball, It’s been 28 years since I saw you in the back of our garage. 28 years since our parents introduced us,” Jordan wrote in a 2003 newspaper advertisement, according to the Chicago Tribune .
“I join Kobe’s millions of fans around the world in congratulating him on an outstanding NBA career and thank him for so many thrilling memories.”
Bryant always has followed Jordan’s lead. It appears he’s ready to follow it out the door, too.
