Kobe Bryant and I are the same age, so when I get old and gray (happening sooner rather than later) and I am in my recliner talking to my grandkids about the player who I most related in the NBA, it will be Kobe Bryant.
I remember Prime Jordan but I was a youngin. I am “witnessing” Prime Lebron, but I don’t dress like his generation of players.
But the Kobe’s timeline parallels my growing up from a boy to a man. It is hard to imagine by the end of the 2013-14 season he would have spent 18 years in the league, but it is also hard for me to remember I knew Maurice Clarett when he was bigger than Lebron James in the state of Ohio.
Kobe’s singular goal is to get that 6th and 7th ring and he knows he is running out of time.
“It’s just that three more years seems like a really long time to continue to stay at a high, high level of training and preparation and health,” Bryant said. “That’s a lot of years. For a guard? That’s a lot of years.”
“It’s not about health necessarily,” he said. “It’s about ‘Do I want to do it? Do I have that hunger to continue to prepare at a high level?’ “
The day Kobe realizes he is no longer the #1 option is the day he will walk away. He is bright enough to know that day is coming sooner than later. He also has to be aware the Lakers aren’t going to pay him $20+ million after his contract runs out.
It is amazing as he starts his 17th season his legacy isn’t quite finished being written, but it is on its last chapter.