Kobe wants to play until he's 40

GreatOne1978 · Nov 5, 2012

Los Angeles Lakers superstar talked to CNN Turk reporter Barbaros Tapan, you can find his statements about his future plans and his flirt with Turkish team Besiktas last season during the lock-out. “My aim is to play until I’m 40 years old and I believe I can do that. This year, we added very good players to our squad. Steve Nash, Dwight Howard will make us stronger. Right now, things are not going very well but I believe it’ll get better soon.” TrendBasket

Mete Aktas: According to this interview conducted by CNN Turk, cnnturk.com/2012/spor/11/0… Kobe Bryant said: "I have a new goal; I'll play until 40" @Jorge Sierra Twitter @MeteAktas76
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http://hoopshype.com/rumors.htm

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713 · Nov 5, 2012

No Chance. Lebron to LA in 2014.

DonatasFanboy · Nov 5, 2012

i wouldn't be terribly surprised, but i'll wait until he confirms this on camera to English speaking media.

SRR21 · Nov 5, 2012

I doubt it I mean he makes 30 mil a year. No way they resign him.

Carl Herrera · Nov 5, 2012

Good for him.

Not so good for his knees.

LC Rox Fan · Nov 5, 2012

He heard about the Lebron rumors, will not accept him taking over his team. Will have longest NBA career of all time to add to his list of accomplishments.

batkins · Nov 5, 2012

Carl Herrera said: ↑

Good for him.

Not so good for his knees.
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Not so good for the Lakers...

Dave_78 · Nov 5, 2012

I can't see it happening. By the time he is 40 he will have lost about four steps athletically and will be unable to get his own shot or to stop opponents from getting theirs at will.

Athleticism recedes rapidly post early thirties.

blunto · Nov 5, 2012

I don't see anywhere where he claims he'll play in the NBA until he's 40.

I'm pretty sure I've heard/read an interview in which he says he'd like to play in Italy, possibly Turkey, after his NBA days. Same interview when he says he's not he'd rather retire than play second fiddle. Second fiddle days are coming fast.

I think he'll play through 2013-14, and then take the show overseas, make a ton of money for his brand in Europe and China. Makes too much sense not to. He spends a ton of time doing international branding stuff in the offseason as it is.

supdudes · Nov 5, 2012

I don't think he means the NBA specifically. Could be China, or Europe, which will have much better competition by 2014.

heypartner · Nov 5, 2012

SRR21 said: ↑

I doubt it I mean he makes 30 mil a year. No way they resign him.
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Well, Jordan took the Vet minimum for his final two years. If it helps Kobe get another ring to take less money, he'll probably do it.

Dave_78 · Nov 5, 2012

The fact that he mentioned adding the new guys during his proclamation leads me to believe he plans on being a Laker until he is 40.

blunto · Nov 5, 2012

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/20512645/future-of-lakers-is-now-for-kobe-as-16year-veteran-ponders-retirement, Oct. 8, 2012

Speaking with CBSSports.com in a quiet moment after practice, Bryant conceded that, in all likelihood, the finish line and the conclusion of his current contract will be one in the same. Bryant has two years left, and though he was careful to point out, "One can never be too sure," he made it clear in the next breath it's almost unfathomable he would play beyond 2013-14, which would be his 18th season.

"It's just that three more years seems like a really long time to continue to stay at a high, high level of training and preparation and health," Bryant said. "That's a lot of years. For a guard? That's a lot of years."

Even after visiting the fountain of youth in the form of a knee procedure in Germany that allowed him to average nearly 39 minutes per game last season, Bryant senses that the end is near -- and not only for his knees, wrist, ankles or other body parts, but also for his incomparably competitive mind. The window, he is ready to acknowledge, is two years. Two more chances to catch Jordan.

"It's not about health necessarily," he said. "It's about 'Do I want to do it? Do I have that hunger to continue to prepare at a high level?' "

Bill Parcells, a competitive sociopath from another sport, used to say that if you're talking about retirement, it means you've basically already retired. To hear Bryant, the most cutthroat basketball combatant of his generation, speak about the day -- the moment -- when his smoldering desire to win finally will be extinguished, was something to behold.

So much so that the next question -- about whether Bryant would ever change his mind and hang on for an extra year or two as a role player averaging 15 points just to pad his championship resume -- needn't have been asked.

"That's not gonna happen," Bryant said. "That's just not me."
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blunto · Nov 5, 2012

Quotes from during the lockout last summer:

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/7030253/los-angeles-lakers-kobe-bryant-playing-italian-league-very-possible

"Italy is my home. It's where my dream of playing in the NBA started. This is where I learned the fundamentals, learned to shoot, to pass and to (move) without the ball," Kobe Bryant said, according to the Gazzetta. "All things that when I came back to America the players my age didn't know how to do because they were only thinking about jumping and dunking."
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Sounds like he thinks he can still compete after his explosiveness fades, relying on his fundamentals.

"It's a huge honor for me to return to Italy. It's home for me," Bryant said in fairly fluent Italian in a video posted on the Gazzetta website. "It's always been a dream for me to play in Italy. We've got to wait and see what happens."
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blunto · Nov 5, 2012

One more from Woj a couple months ago, then I'll chill:

Kobe Bryant's final playing days could stretch into a European adventure

What's more, Bryant is one of them. In his formative years, Europe was home. He speaks Italian and Spanish. He hangs around soccer stadiums. Bryant travels to Europe and it all comes so easily to him. As he chases his second gold medal with Team USA in these Olympic Games, his basketball future in Europe remains ripe with possibilities.

Asked about the possibility of playing a season in Europe, Bryant told Yahoo! Sports: "It would be natural for me to go do it. It wouldn't be a stretch at all. I grew up here."

Bryant plans to play out the final two years of his Lakers contract and reassess everything. He's still performing on an All-Star level, and his knees are holding up with his 34th birthday approaching this month. As the son of Italian League star Joe Bryant, he lived in Italy for several years as a child. His memories of Italy's pro league plush, Bryant still gushes over witnessing the scoring genius of Brazilian star Oscar Schmidt in Italy.

There's so much sentimentality about Italy and so much more of a business acumen about his ability to push product in Europe. He'll be selling Nikes forever here.

If Bryant ever wanted to make this leap at the end of his career, his decision on where to play would be an intriguing one.

"You'd have to look at the market and what's going on in terms of the level of basketball being played," Bryant said. "I understand there's a high level of competitive basketball in Turkey now. They might have the best league in Europe. Spain has obviously been one of the top leagues for a long time.
"And Italy is a place that's dear in my heart, I grew up there, but the level is not where it used to be. When I was growing up over there, that was the best league in Europe."
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