Kobe Calls It A Career

For the last twenty years, one person has been synonymous with the Purple and Gold of the Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant. He has been the face of the franchise for well over a decade now, finally calling it a career on Sunday night. He will finish out the rest of the 2015-16 season with Los Angeles, saying in his announcement Sunday on The Players' Tribune website that he will retire after this season, writing that "this season is all I have left to give."

When Kobe does hang it up at the end of the season, he's going to go down as one of the greatest players to step foot on an NBA court. The numbers for Kobe speak for themselves. Kobe is a five time NBA champion (2000–2002, 2009–2010). Three of those NBA titles were with Shaquille O'Neal (2000, 2001 and 2002). Just to prove that those titles were no fluke, Kobe won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010. Those last two titles, Kobe won finals MVP in both of those years. Kobe was the MVP of the entire league in 2008. He was a seventeen time NBA All-Star (1998, 2000–2015), winning the MVP award of the game four time (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011). He was named to the All-NBA First Team eleven times (2002–2004, 2006–2013), an All-NBA Second Team twice (2000–2001),and and All-NBA Third Team twice (1999, 2005). Nine times Kobe was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team (2000, 2003–2004, 2006–2011) and three more times he was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team (2001–2002, 2012). He has a pair of NBA scoring crowns in his back pocket (2006 and 2007). Kobe won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1997. He was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team that same year. Kobe will finish his career as the Los Angeles Lakers all-time leading scorer. Kobe has career averages of 25.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, and put up a career-high 35.3 points per game in the 2005-06 season.

A lot of numbers to hit you with I know, but it goes to show the greatness of Kobe Bryant. He has proven on a lot of nights that he can dominate a game by himself. Hitting four or more points in a game is a pretty good effort in one night, but Kobe has done that with regularity. At the time of this writing, Bryant has played 134 games in which he has scored forty or more points. That's a mind blowing number for a guy who's playing in his 20th NBA season. Now out of these, 5 were sixty-plus point games and 26 were fifty-plus point games. He is third behind Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan, who scored forty or more in 271 and 173 regular season games, respectively. 2003 was a banner year for Kobe, as scored 40 points or more in nine consecutive games, tying Jordan, who accomplished the same feat in the 1986–87 season. The only player with longer streaks of 40 or more is Chamberlain, who had 14 consecutive games twice in the 1961–62 season and 10 consecutive games in the 1962–63 season. In 2006 Kobe went off again, when scored a career-high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. It was the second-highest number of points scored in a game in NBA history, behind only Chamberlain's 100-point performance in 1962. Then in 2007, Bryant scored 50 points or more in four consecutive games, another amazing feet. This accomplishment is fifth in NBA history behind streaks by Chamberlain, who had 50 or more in seven, six and five (twice) consecutive games in the 1961–62 season. Bryant has also played 12 playoff games in which he has scored forty or more points. Out of the 134 games, 21 resulted in Bryant notching a double-double and 42 resulted in losses.

Those numbers are flat out mind numbing to be able to read. If you get mentioned in the same breath with Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan, you know your going down as one of the greatest to ever play the game of Basketball. What set Kobe apart from a lot of guys around the league was his will to win and the skill that went along with it. At times, Kobe was a lot of trouble to deal with. Look at the mess Los Angeles was in in 2003-04. During that year, Phil Jackson said at times that Kobe was uncoachable (at least according to Phil's book). But still, there's no denying a rare talent when you have one, and Kobe was that rare talent. With the exception of MJ, nobody playing the game in the last 30 years could change the complexion of a game the way Bryant could. When he was on his game and in a groove, there are very few in basketball who were any better.

Kobe was taken 13th overall by the Hornets in the 1996 draft. He never played a game for Charlotte, as his draft rights were trade to the Lakers on July 1st in exchange for center Vlade Divac. The announcement of his retirement comes in the midst of one of his worst season's. He is averaging 15.7 points per game on 31.5 percent shooting from the field, the worst of his career.