Kobe Bryant's farewell tour is nearing its end, and Wednesday's finale at Staples Center is going to be unlike anything the Los Angeles Lakers star has ever experienced. All season, though, the 37-year-old has believed that, were the Lakers winning, none of this extra stuff would be happening, via The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski:
For a moment, Bryant was still thinking about life on a contender. He is nodding his head, insisting this is true: "Listen, I believe this: On a better team, I could play a lot better. Physically, I know I could do so much more. I found that rhythm, that balance. But after three major injuries, to get to the end [healthy], this means the world to me."
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Had the Lakers still been a contender – had everything not crumbled around him – Bryant swears this would all be so different, so much more suited to his persona.
"The ovations wouldn't be here," Bryant told The Vertical. "We'd be amidst cutthroat competition. In this season, I've been able to come up for air, take the blinders off, look around, soak it all in – and say thank you. Had we been competing for a championship, there's no way I'd allow all this to happen. We'd have one goal in mind and that would be winning the championship.
"In the end, this wasn't hard to accept. I can accept reality and move on."
When Bryant announced his retirement and started receiving gifts and watching tribute videos, it was surprising to some people. He had always maintained that he didn't want anything like that. This was the game's most intense competitor, after all.
Perhaps, though, his previously stated desire to avoid all this was related to his otherworldly confidence. Bryant knew he wouldn't have time for it if the Lakers were playing for something, and maybe he had to make himself believe that they would be. That seems a bit funny now, but Bryant said the team "absolutely" could make the playoffs back in August.
Bryant would obviously prefer to be playing in games that mattered. Instead, he's had to settle for a different sort of challenge: simply staying healthy and figuring out ways to produce. In that sense, this season has turned out to be a victory: He scored 35 points against the Houston Rockets on Sunday, a feat that seemed extremely unlikely the way he was moving and shooting in November.
There are just two games left in Bryant's career. He and the Lakers visit the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday and host the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
