Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mike Kupchak said that his star player, Kobe Bryant, will return as strong as ever. During a media day in the Lakers’ practice facility, the businessman told reporters that he is not worried about the 17-year veteran’s health status. This is not the only good Kobe Bryant update you’ll get Lakers fans. Even the Black Mamba himself is optimistic that he can still play top-level basketball.
There’s big difference to whom the words will come from. In an interview with Yahoo Sports, Bryant finally spoke about what fans can expect from him. He talked about what would be like once he returns or when he will retire. When asked by Marc Spears if he can continue playing until he’s 40, here is his answer.
"Whether I do or not, we'll have to see that two years from now," Bryant said. "I don't know, but I could [play longer]. Physically, I don't see an end to the tunnel."
Although optimistic, the Black Mamba acknowledged that he went through a serious setback.
"It's a pretty tough injury," Bryant said. "I'm not going to lie. There are a lot of things that go through your mind when something like that happens. But I just went on my grind, just kind of chipped away at it day by day. I feel pretty good as a result."
Here’s another Kobe Bryant update, this time, it is about how he envisions himself when he nears decision to retire his jerseys. There are many players who were forced to drop competitive basketball because of injuries. That is something he doesn’t want to happen. He said that he wants to emulate baseball superstar Derek Jeter who retired just last week. Bryant wants to retire because he wanted to.
"The biggest key for anybody in retirement is you always want to retire by choice," Bryant told Yahoo Sports. "Hopefully, I will be fortunate enough to have that option. You don't want to see another catastrophic injury or something like that. When you walk away, you want to feel like you walked away on your terms."
