Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant will reportedly call it quits after the 2015-16 NBA season, confirming previous reports that he will not sign a new deal after his current one expires.
Bryant, who will be playing in the final year of the two-year deal worth $48.5 million he signed in 2013, told The Hollywood Reporter that next season, which will be his 20th in the NBA, will be his last in the league.
"Kobe Bryant has been contemplating life after basketball since he was 22," Marisa Guthrie of Hollywood Reporter wrote. "Now that he's 36, out due to injury and close to retirement, he says he'll play one more season and finish his two-year contract, which will net him $25 million."
In a recent interview with NBA TV, Bryant said that he will not retire if he will have it his way, but it looks like father time has already convinced the 17-time All-Star to reconsider his decision.
Bryant, who became the league's third-leading scorer of all time when he surpassed Michael Jordan earlier in the season, has been slowed down by injuries over the past two seasons.
During the 2012-13 season, Bryant sustained a torn Achilles tendon, which forced him to miss the first part of the following season. But just as when he was regaining his old form, Bryant suffered a knee injury, which put him on the sideline for the rest of the 2013-14 season.
The 36-year-old superstar returned this season, but his 19th year in the league was cut short after sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury, which fueled talks about his retirement.
But while Bryant looks determined to end his career soon, Lakers coach Byron Scott is not ready to write the superstar off, expressing belief that the five-time NBA champion will reconsider his decision if they will show significant improvements next season.
"I think if we get the right pieces in next year and we do a pretty good job of playing basketball and he stays healthy for the whole year and the next summer we get a couple more pieces, I think he'll take a real hard look," Scott said in an interview with ESPN Los Angeles.
The Lakers are nowhere near to contending for a title, though, as they are currently in 14th place in the Western Conference standings with their 13-41 record unless they make significant moves this season.
General manager Mitch Kupchak said that they will look to make moves this offseason, but he insisted that he will not strike deals that could hurt their future just to give Bryant a strong supporting cast next season.
"To jeopardize the next five or seven years, bring in old veterans that make a lot of money, just to win one more year, because that's Kobe's last year or could be his last year, I'm not sure that fits into doing it the right way," Kupchak told the OC Register.
