Kobe Bryant is playing like it’s 2004 again, but his career has more years behind it than it does ahead with 2016 being a definitive end date.
When Kobe Bryant lost basically an entire season to a knee injury last year, many wondered if we had seen the best basketball he would play in his career. While he’s not rivaling his MVP seasons, Kobe seems to be getting a final surge in his career as he’s playing on an elite level he hasn’t been on in years.
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Don’t think that means he’s adding longevity to his career though, as Kobe is eyeing the end of his career in the NBA and has a tentative date selected for retirement.
According to Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kobe spoke with his high school coach Gregg Downer and said that after the 2015-16 season he’s going to pack it in.
"“He told me he’s playing two more years – end of story,” Downer said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “He’s very grateful for what the Lakers have meant to him and especially what they did with that contract. I don’t think he’s going to play beyond two years, and I don’t think he’d play anywhere else. He wants to be the type of person who says, ‘I played my whole career with one franchise.’ “"
This isn’t he first time that 2016 date has been brought up or that retirement has been brought up. Still, Kobe is playing on an elite level right now that is making everyone nostalgic about how he used to ball and that’s something making Lakers basketball as exciting as it can be.
It would be a shame to see such a glorious career end during such a lackluster era for the Lakers, but that seems to be the case. He may still hang his mind, but these last two years of Kobe’s career will at least be personally impressive if not universally for his team.
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