Cover Stories Kobe Bryant: The Black Mamba Announces Retirement After 20 Seasons
We knew the day would come and now it’s time to say goodbye. It’s bittersweet. Kobe Bryant, five-time champion and 17-time All-Star is hanging up his basketball shoes…father time finally catching up with the man we affectionately call the “Black Mamba.”
Kobe reminded us that we met him as a kid. Bryant, in an open letter entitled, “Dear Basketball,” reflected on his love of the sport as a six-year-old before we ever knew his name. “As a six-year old boy deeply in love with you, I never saw the end of the tunnel. I only saw myself running out of one,” Bryant said as he waxed poetically about his first love.
He said he told us now, so that “we both can savor every moment we have left together.” And for that, we are grateful. We get to show him how much we appreciate the endless days and nights he shot jumpers, practiced shooting three’s until his fingers were raw. We get to cheer him for all the days he wanted to be at home with his family or for all the times he was with his family and we interrupted... 
We get to chant his name throughout NBA land for all the times we criticized his play, demanded that he live up to our expectations, and for refusing to accept his humanity; that he would and did make mistakes. We get to applaud, wildly, his excellence, his laser focus, and his extraordinary courage. We indeed get to savor and recognize him as one of the greatest to ever play the game.
We get to tell him how we feel. He did say “I did everything for you because that’s what you do when someone makes you feel as alive as you’ve made me feel.” Well…back-at-cha…Mr. Bryant; we never felt more alive when we watched you in 2006, score 81 points in a single game against the Raptors; or your alley-oop pass to Shaquille O’Neal during the Lakers’ fourth-quarter comeback versus the Trail Blazers, game seven of the Western Conference finals; or the 2008 Olympic gold-medal game vs. Spain. It was you, who carried that star-studded team to victory, 20 points, to win your first gold medal. Trust me…we felt that USA pride but most of all, you made us feel alive.
There’s not a basketball fan on the planet that does not know how much you love basketball. “You asked for my hustle and I gave you my heart.” “You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream and I’ll always love you for it,” Bryant said. See that’s the Kobe way…you taught us about love.
With any great love story, you hope that the love is mutual, that it’s not unrequited. Well…Kobe Bryant, son of Joe and Pamela, brother of Sharia, and Shaya, husband of Vanessa and father of Natalia and Gianna, we love you. We hope you felt it when you hoisted your first NBA championship trophy, and your first MVP award. Did you feel it?
We loved you when we displayed our tendency to be fair-weathered fans or ask what have you done for us lately…forgive us…we were still learning…unconditional love takes training and conditioning…something you learned long before we came into your life. You were patient with us, and what remains between us, is love. Do you feel what we’re saying?
It is our hope that you feel the love of each and every fan of the Black Mamba, #24 who showed us as an 18-year old that he wasn’t just a boy among men, but someone who could straight up ball. Did you hear James Harden say, that you were his “MJ.” Did you hear the Magic man admire your will to win?
It’s been reported that you visited some of the parks near Lower Merion High School recently, the places that helped to shape you, toughen you up. Did you think of us? Did you weep? You have said that “it felt weird sharing a locker room with players nearly 20 years younger” than you. “I feel like their grandfather,” Bryant said. Funny…we didn’t see you that way and we hung onto you with all ten fingers, not really wanting to let you know. But you understood…that’s how great love affairs are. So you made it official, that this is our last dance… “:05 seconds on the clock,” ball in your hands…