'My body knows it’s time to say goodbye'

LOS ANGELES, United States (Kurdistan24) – NBA great Kobe Bryant announced his intentions to retire from the game at the end of the 2015-16 season on Sunday.

Bryant, who has enjoyed a prolific 20-year career playing for the Los Angeles Lakers decided that his mind was no longer obsessed with basketball.

“I had to just accept the fact that I don’t want to do this anymore, and I’m okay with that,” Bryant told reporters after the Lakers’ 107-103 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

“I’ve known for a while, and I’ve always said that if anything changes then I’ll change my mind,” he said. “A decision like this you can’t allow, you can’t make that decision based on outside circumstances, it has to be an internal decision.”

The 37-year-old shooting guard has won five NBA championship rings including 17 All-Star selections while playing for the Lakers. Bryant’s long career with the Lakers has made him the only player in NBA history to remain with one team for 20 years.

Bryant began his career with the Lakers in 1996 and enjoyed great success before injuries caught up to him. As a result of injuries, Bryant has only managed to play 41 times over the past two seasons.

“There’s so much beauty in the pain of this thing,” Bryant said. “It sounds really weird to say that, but I appreciate the really, really tough times as much as I appreciate the great times. It’s important to go through that progression because I think that’s where you really learn about the self.”

Bryant’s decision to stop his playing career came to a surprise to Lakers coach Byron Scott, who thinks he has “at least another year” of playing left in him.

The former NBA MVP said he was “very solid in his decision” to stop playing. “I don’t want to get too Zen-like,” Bryant said. “But honestly, when I’m sitting in meditation, my mind starts drifting, and it always drifted toward basketball, always. And it doesn’t do that now. It does that sometimes. It doesn’t do that all the time, and to me, that was really the first indicator that this game is not something I can obsess over for much longer.”