It’s never easy for a professional athlete to close the door in their playing career, but the end comes for all and there’s no way to avoid Father Time. Even for a legend like Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, age and years of mileage finally took their toll and the moment when he realized his body would no longer hold up is the moment when his entire mentally changed.
“First, I wanna say this,” said former Lakers guard Lou Williams. “Two-four started that season as Kobe Bryant. Training camp, he was pushing everybody. He was getting his body ready. He was getting his mind ready. He was making sure we all was on the same page. And then as I remember it, I feel like nine, 10 games in, his body started breaking down, and he came to the realization that this was the end, and his mentality shifted. He became a lot lighthearted. He became more easygoing.”
Kobe, who played for 20 years in the NBA, never took a night off and he was always the first one in the gym and the last one to leave. He played through various injuries, carried his team through countless trials, and exhausted all of his energy trying to meet his standard of greatness. For Lou Williams, who played with Kobe during his final season, he saw the legend’s gradual decline and still remembers how he came to accept his reality.
“I knew at that point he had kinda took his foot off the gas, like he knew his body wasn’t gonna hold up to the standard that he had set for himself,” said Lou.
As a 5x champion, Hall of Famer, former MVP, and 18x All-Star, Kobe Bryant isn’t your typical NBA superstar. He was a generational athlete with career averages of 25.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game. Besides his dominance on the court, Kobe was known for his unmatched work ethic, which saw him constantly out-working his teammates and opponents alike.
Bryant’s approach to the game was highly methodical and he never gave less than 100% effort on the floor. Throughout his career, even late into his Lakers tenure, Bryant led by example and made sure to keep his body and mind ready for the regular-season grind.
Unfortunately, it all ended for Kobe in 2016, when he officially retired after his final NBA season. At that point, Bryant was already a shell of himself but he tried his hardest to go out on a high note after months of an extensive “retirement tour.”
This summer, it’s LeBron James who is approaching the end and, so far, he’s managed to maintain his status as an All-NBA player. The King intends to enjoy his talents while he still can but it won’t be long before he has the same realization that Kobe had back in 2016.
At 40 years old, James has already broken every precedent for NBA longevity and he has nothing left to prove in his career. At this point, LeBron is in it for the love of the game, but even he will have to call it quits eventually and the NBA will never be the same.
