{"id":4719,"date":"2015-11-30T00:28:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T00:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2015\/11\/30\/kobe-bryant-announces-retirement-in-the-form-of-a-poem\/"},"modified":"2015-11-30T00:28:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T00:28:00","slug":"kobe-bryant-announces-retirement-in-the-form-of-a-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/kobe-bryant-announces-retirement-in-the-form-of-a-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"Kobe Bryant Announces Retirement (In The Form Of A Poem)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Camila Domonoske<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\"Los<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant stands on the court during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets in early November. On Sunday, Bryant announced this season would be his last, in a poem posted online. Mark J. Terrill\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Mark J. Terrill\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In a poem posted on the Players’ Tribune website, five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant says that this season will be his last.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old Lakers player “is currently struggling through the worst season of his illustrious 20-year NBA career,” as Reuters puts it.<\/p>\n

The injury-plagued star has been very well compensated for his disappointing performance, reports ESPN:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

… Despite the rough start to the season, the Lakers have publicly supported Bryant. Lakers coach Byron Scott told ESPN on Friday that he would not bench the 17-time All-Star for his poor play.<\/p>\n

Bryant is in the final year of a two-year deal that will pay him $25 million in 2015-16, making him the NBA’s highest-paid player this season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In his poem, “Dear Basketball,” Kobe writes that he has loved the sport ever since he was a kid rolling up socks and “shooting imaginary \/ game-winning shots.”<\/p>\n

“You asked for my hustle \/ I gave you my heart,” he writes \u2014 and, later, “This season is all I have left to give.”<\/p>\n

You can read the full poem at The Players’ Tribune<\/a>. (The site is down as of Sunday night, but you can still access the Google cache.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

It ends like this:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

My heart can take the pounding
\nMy mind can handle the grind
\nBut my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.<\/p>\n

And that’s OK.
\nI’m ready to let you go.
\nI want you to know now
\nSo we both can savor every moment we have left together.
\nThe good and the bad.
\nWe have given each other
\nAll that we have.<\/p>\n

And we both know, no matter what I do next
\nI’ll always be that kid
\nWith the rolled up socks
\nGarbage can in the corner
\n:05 seconds on the clock
\nBall in my hands.
\n5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1<\/p>\n

Love you always,
\nKobe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source:: http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/11\/29\/457803168\/kobe-bryant-announces-resignation-in-the-form-of-a-poem?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Los<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant stands on the court during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets in early November. On Sunday, Bryant announced this season would be his last, in a poem posted online. Mark J. Terrill\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Mark J. Terrill\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In a poem posted on the Players’ Tribune website, five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant says that this season will be his last.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old Lakers player “is currently struggling through the worst season of his illustrious 20-year NBA career,” as Reuters puts it.<\/p>\n

The injury-plagued star has been very well compensated for his disappointing performance, reports ESPN:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

… Despite the rough start to the season, the Lakers have publicly supported Bryant. Lakers coach Byron Scott told ESPN on Friday that he would not bench the 17-time All-Star for his poor play.<\/p>\n

Bryant is in the final year of a two-year deal that will pay him $25 million in 2015-16, making him the NBA’s highest-paid player this season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In his poem, “Dear Basketball,” Kobe writes that he has loved the sport ever since he was a kid rolling up socks and “shooting imaginary \/ game-winning shots.”<\/p>\n

“You asked for my hustle \/ I gave you my heart,” he writes \u2014 and, later, “This season is all I have left to give.”<\/p>\n

You can read the full poem at The Players’ Tribune<\/a>. (The site is down as of Sunday night, but you can still access the Google cache.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

It ends like this:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

My heart can take the pounding
\nMy mind can handle the grind
\nBut my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.<\/p>\n

And that’s OK.
\nI’m ready to let you go.
\nI want you to know now
\nSo we both can savor every moment we have left together.
\nThe good and the bad.
\nWe have given each other
\nAll that we have.<\/p>\n

And we both know, no matter what I do next
\nI’ll always be that kid
\nWith the rolled up socks
\nGarbage can in the corner
\n:05 seconds on the clock
\nBall in my hands.
\n5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1<\/p>\n

Love you always,
\nKobe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}