Kobe hinting at retirement again.. / not gonna be a role player

"Am I going to stick around and score 19, 18 points a game?.. Hell No!" - Kobe on an ESPN interview with Stephen A Smith

Today he is 3691 points behind Jordan for #3 on the all time scoring list. After this season he'll still be around 2500 short. So 2 more seasons after this..

He's saying that he doesn't expect to remain such a prolific scorer as he gets older, like he is now. He's not saying that he's going to retire early.

[QUOTE=REACTION]He's saying that he doesn't expect to remain such a prolific scorer as he gets older, like he is now. He's not saying that he's going to retire early.[/QUOTE]

He's saying he's not going to stick around this league once he no longer can put up superstar numbers. Contrary to what the large majority of superstar players do. No ring chasing for KB.

[QUOTE=YAWN]He's saying he's not going to stick around this league once he no longer can put up superstar numbers. Contrary to what the large majority of superstar players do. No ring chasing for KB.[/QUOTE]

Bullshit, 18, 19 pts is affective. It's Kobe's ego which won't allow him to chuck up 22, 23 shots and average his points as he ages. How can you respect a player who can't age gracefully, but who's ego is so gigantic that when he can't be the "super star" anymore he's done? What a ****ing coward.

[QUOTE=Smoke117]Bullshit, 18, 19 pts is affective. It's Kobe's ego which won't allow him to chuck up 22, 23 shots and average his points as he ages. How can you respect a player who can't age gracefully, but who's ego is so gigantic that when he can't be the "super star" anymore he's done? What a ****ing coward.[/QUOTE]

I actually respect him more TBH. It shows if this guy is not going to be the central focus of a championship, he doesn't want to play at all, thats how much of a winner he wants and how much responsibility he takes for his team. Thats mad hunger from Kobe.

[QUOTE=fubu05]I actually respect him more TBH. It shows if this guy is not going to be the central focus of a championship, he doesn't want to play at all, thats how much of a winner he wants and how much responsibility he takes for his team. Thats mad hunger from Kobe.[/QUOTE]

He played when Shaq was the central focus.

We'll see how he feels when he is at 19/gm. I bet he will go on. I think he has his sights set on Kareem.

[QUOTE=ThatsGame]He played when Shaq was the central focus.[/QUOTE]

Think he means as a veteran instead of a rookie.

Selfish Kobrick

LOL...I bet you when Kobe retires he comes back. Just wait and see.

Well no shit. At some point Kobe's gonna have to defer and I don't see him willingly doing that. He's had to hold the ball more these past few seasons to put up the type of numbers he has. At some point his usage rate is going to be 50%.

I mean look at Kobe this year and last. He hasn't affected games like he used to. While his numbers look nice, they hardly tell the whole story. Of course 20 or 30 years down the road people won't remember that type of stuff, which is probably what he's banking on.

[QUOTE=fubu05]I actually respect him more TBH. It shows if this guy is not going to be the central focus of a championship, he doesn't want to play at all, thats how much of a winner he wants and how much responsibility he takes for his team. Thats mad hunger from Kobe.[/QUOTE]
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it doesn't show him to be more of a "winner" but rather a competitor. Ideally a player would be willing to subjugate his ego and take a lesser role to win, but we do have to respect his competitive spirit.

I think Kobe meant if he WASN'T capable of being alpha dog down the stretch and still show flashes then he wouldn't stick around. MJ at 40 still showed alpha dog traits, was still in the all around sense one of the top SF's (Jordan played mostly SF when he came back), and averaged over 20 points both seasons with the Wiz. Jordan actually took a backseat more than he should have with the Wiz. I'm sure he was trying to preserve his body. But at the same time he was an executive who was also playing a teaching role at the same time. Kobe has a sick scoring arsenal AND great all around ability like MJ. So if Kobe CHOSE to score 18 or 19 points a night on a deep contender then that's one thing. But if 18-19 points is ALL he is capable of AND he's not on a contender then that's different. But 18-19 points at 40 years of age is DIFFERENT from 18-19 points at 35 years old. So the 18-19 points he was talking about WASN'T as cut and dry as it sounded.

He will retire as 24 and come back as 8

hes gonna retire and come back as 22:roll: