Kobe Bryant Announces Retirement

Photo Kobe Bryant earlier this month after the Lakers defeated the Brooklyn Nets, 104-98, at Barclays Center. Credit Mike Stobe/Getty Images The Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant announced Sunday on The Players’ Tribune website that he will retire after this season, his 20th in the N.B.A.

“You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream and I’ll always love you for it.But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer,” Bryant wrote in a poem titled “Dear Basketball.” “This season is all I have left to give. My heart can take the pounding. My mind can handle the grind but my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.

“And that’s OK. I’m ready to let you go.”