On Sunday, November 29^th, Kobe Bryant stated that this season will be his last one in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After a 107-103 loss to the Indiana Pacers, Bryant also stated that he made the decision to retire, “a while ago”.

Kobe was drafted into the NBA straight out of high school at the young age of 17 and has since had a very successful career. He has played for two decades, been selected for the All-Star game 17 times, scored over 32,000 points, won five championship rings, and took home two Olympic gold medals.

“It sucks that he’s retiring but it was becoming obvious that he needed to. He’s just getting older and older and isn’t the same player he used to be. Whether that’s because of all the injuries he’s had or his age I do not know,” said junior, Allen Chen.

Kobe has played in only 41 out of 164 Lakers games in the past two seasons due to injuries. This season he has been healthy so far, but is producing poor numbers in most statistical categories. He is on his last year of a two-year contract with the Lakers.

Bryant is currently the highest-paid player in the NBA, earning a salary of $25 million a year. In addition, Kobe makes millions more from his “Kobe” basketball shoe line.

“Yeah I think it was time for him to retire, he’s just getting hurt all the time. He’s gotten 81 points in one game before, he’s a great player. I think he’s just simply too injured and old to continue playing and continue dominating the league he has in previous years,” said junior, Chase Creasy.

Kobe also is currently third on the NBA’s career scoring list, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.

Kobe Bryant will surely go down as being one of the best players to play the game and hopefully he can turn this current season around and end on a better note instead of having one of the worst seasons of his career.