Sport
NBA Super Star Kobe Bryant announces his retirement
The Lakers’ next road game is in Philadelphia on Tuesday – perhaps not coincidentally, given the otherwise strange timing of Bryant’s announcement.
“Philly is where I grew up,” Bryant told reporters in an interview in Miami earlier this month. “It is always a different emotion there than anywhere else.”
Bryant was the first guard ever to be drafted directly out of high school, taken 13th overall by the Charlotte Hornets and traded to the Lakers. Although he won the dunk contest at All-Star weekend as a rookie, his Lakers didn’t become title contenders until coach Phil Jackson arrived in 1999 and built a three-time champion around Kobe and Shaq.
Bryant made a fourth NBA Finals appearance in 2004 despite his preseason arrest for assault and subsequent legal proceedings that sometimes required him to fly from Colorado to Los Angeles on game days. The assault case against Bryant was dropped in September 2004, but his acknowledged poor behavior affected his reputation and endorsement deals for years.
Bryant scored 81 points against Toronto on January 22, 2006, the second highest-scoring performance in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. The Lakers struggled until Gasol arrived via trade in 2008 and they appeared in the next three NBA Finals, winning two.
Copyright 2015 The Associate Press
