KOBE BRYANT TO RETIRE ?

 

  

VIA STEFAN BONDY

 

LOS ANGELES — Indications all along have been that Kobe Bryant will call it quits on his Hall of Fame career when his contract expires following next season.

But after a strange story from The Hollywood Reporter surfaced Friday claiming Bryant definitively provided that timeline, Lakers coach Byron Scott was skeptical.

“I’ll believe it when he tells me,” Scott said before Friday night’s game against the Nets.

The report claimed Bryant had stated his plans in an upcoming documentary, but did not disclose the exact quotes.

“We’re in Los Angeles so we have a whole lot of headlines,” Scott said. “That one, like I said, until I hear from the horse’s mouth, which is Kobe Bryant, I’m not going to believe it.”

In a more recent interview with NBA TV — one that aired just this week — Bryant wouldn’t commit to an injury timeline, saying he was hoping for a career “rebirth” similar to that of the Spurs.

Over the last four years the Lakers have gone from the premier franchise in the NBA to a bottom dweller, a starless collection when Bryant is sidelined with injury (he has played just 41 games over the past two seasons).

Bryant’s contract extension — which he signed in 2013 — will pay him $48.5 million over two seasons. It has become a source of criticism that the Lakers would commit so much to a player in such decline, without a capable supporting cast.

Whether or not Bryant said he is retiring, the Lakers seem to be operating under that assumption.

"This has been Kobe's team for almost 18 or 20 years," Kupchak said. "And we're much closer to the end of those 18, 20 years than we are to the middle or the beginning. So at some point we have to start a new run. ....To jeopardize the next five or seven years, bring in more 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."