“This season is all I have left to give.”
After two decades of cementing his legacy as one of basketball's greatest, Kobe Bryant announced via The Players' Tribune that he will retire after this season.
Bryant broke the news in the form of a poem in which he speaks directly to the sport of basketball, expressing his love for the game and satisfaction with moving on.
In his piece, the 17-time all-star thanks basketball for "giving a six-year-old boy his Lakers dream." Among his accomplishments, Bryant is the NBA's third-highest all-time scorer, a five-time champion and the 2008 MVP.
Sixty-seven games remain on the Lakers' schedule in what will be his final run.
“My heart can take the pounding/My mind can handle the grind/But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.”