In his first exclusive interview since announcing his retirement on The Players’ Tribune, Kobe Bryant sat down with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America to explain his decision to walk away.
When asked by Roberts how he knew “this was it,” Bryant said his daily morning meditation helped him realize his 20-season career was coming to an end.
“I try to have at least 15 minutes of still time and just kind of sit in my thoughts in the morning and just kind of meditate. And normally what happens with me is my mind would always drift to the game. Always,” he said. “And then I found myself sitting there. My mind wouldn’t drift towards the game all the time anymore. And that’s when I started realizing, ‘You know what? It’s getting close. It’s getting close.’ Because now I’m not obsessively thinking about the game anymore. It’s not wired into my subconscious the way it used to be.”
In the interview, Roberts also asked Kobe a revealing question — centered around whether he would include himself in the top five players of all time.
He of course declined to name himself, naming Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon and Jerry West.
“To be mentioned in the same breath as those players, honestly, to me is…everything,” Bryant said. “I mean, we’ll sit and debate endlessly who was better, who would win in a one-on-one matchup between myself and M.J. And you can debate that until the cows come home….He would win some. I would win some.”
The 37-year-old Bryant will walk away as a five-time NBA champion, a 17-time All Star and an NBA MVP, but is having a final season to forget — averaging 15.8 points per game and a 30.1 shooting percentage.