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Your support makes all the difference.Kobe Bryant has announced that he will retire from basketball at the end of the season.
The 37-year-old has spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five NBA titles with the storied club, as well as enjoying one of the best individual careers in NBA history.
Bryant, the league MVP in 2008, has been named to the All-Star game 17 times, the second most all-time, has 11 All-NBA First Team selections, nine defensive first team selections and is third on the all-time scoring list with 32,683, trailing only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.
On 22 January 2006, Bryant scored 81 points in a win against the Toronto Raptors, the second highest points tally in a game in history, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game in 1962.
Alongside Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant won three titles in a row from 2000 to 2002, and then another pair in 2009 and 2010, where he was named the Finals MVP in both series. He also helped the Lakers reach the Finals on two other occasions in 2004, where they lost to the Detroit Pistons, and 2008, where they were beaten by the Boston Celtics.
But Bryant has struggled with injury over the past two seasons, playing in just 54 of 180 possible games since the start of the 2013-14 season, and is enduring the worst season of his career, shooting a career low 37.4 per cent from two-point range and 20.2 per cent from three - he is scoring just 15 points per game from just shy of 17 shots.
In a poem written for The Players' Tribune titled Dear Basketball, Bryant penned an emotional farewell to his fans.
"You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream / And I’ll always love you for it. / But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer. / This season is all I have left to give."
Speaking later at a news conference after the Lakers lost to the Indiana Pacers, their 14th defeat in 16 games this season, Bryant admitted that he had been mulling over the decision for a while.
"I've known for a while," Bryant said. "A decision like this, you can't make that decision based on outside circumstances. It has to be an internal decision, and finally I've decided to accept that I can't actually do this anymore, and I'm OK with that.
"It takes a weight off my shoulders and everybody else's."
The No 24 will now have something of a farewell parade around rival arenas, even those where he is most hated. Already this season against the New York Knicks and Miami Heat, Bryant has found a fond reception from usually hostile crowds, who perhaps realised they may have been seeing him for the final time.
Bryant's influence across the current NBA cannot be understated, he was easily the best and most recognisable player in the league from around 2000 to 2009, after Michael Jordan retired and LeBron James became the NBA's biggest star.
His influence is felt across the league.
"I didn't really have many moments of watching Jordan, but Kobe was my Jordan," said Indiana Pacers star Paul George. "Watching him winning championships, I remember just being at home with my mum, with my grandma, with my dad, just idolising him. After the game was over, I'd go in the front yard and try to imitate everything I just saw.
"I'm not saying he's better than Jordan, but for me, growing up, that's who I idolized and looked up to. That was the standard. He was the best player, and it wasn't close."
Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said: "Our exposure worldwide, the TV deals and the marketing ... I can't say you can pin it all on Kobe, but certainly when we go from city to city, every building we go into there are three or four thousand Lakers fans there with No 24 jerseys on, even in the arenas where we're most hated.
"And to me, he's a universal sports celebrity. Really transcends athletics. How do you quantify that kind of success and how do you relate that to the success of the NBA? I think it goes hand in hand."
Bryant said he was proudest of the messages he has received from his peers.
"The coolest thing is the messages that I received from other players and they say thank you for the inspiration. Thank you for the lessons, for the mentality. Those things are honestly the things that mean the most to me. To have respect from your peers, there's nothing in the world that can top that."
Bryant also spoke fondly of his place in Lakers history.
"The fact that I'm talked about in company with Magic [Johnson] and [Kareem Abdul-Jabbar], I've made it," he added. "That's enough for me. I was a Laker die-hard growing up. You know what I mean? That's good enough for me. I've just been extremely fortunate. How many kids can say growing up that when you turn pro, you're going to play for your favorite team in the world and spend your entire career there? It's been a dream."
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