Kobe Bryant announces he’ll retire after 2015-16 season

Kobe Bryant announced that he will retire from the NBA at the end of the season, his 20th.

In other news, Kobe would have been a free agent at season’s end. He is 37 years old and he is shooting 30 percent from the floor and 20 percent on threes. Players who are 37 years old and shoot that poorly do not get NBA contracts, especially when they insist on taking almost 20 shots per game.

But it wasn’t to be. Bryant airballed a three-point attempt and the Pacers won, 107-103.

Bryant was 4-of-20 from the field as he scored 13 points in 33 minutes as the Lakers fell to 2-14 in Bryant’s final season.

On Sunday afternoon, Kobe Bryant announced this season would be his last. On Sunday night, Kobe Bryant had the ball in his hands with a chance to tie the game in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.

All of the elements for a classic ending were there. Bryant had just made a three to cut it to a one-point game. Now trailing by three, Kobe rose for another shot. The crowd rose with him, anticipating a huge make. Then all you see is dejection as the shot misses everything.

In his 20th season and after five championships, Kobe Bryant has announced he will retire from the NBA after the 2015-16 campaign, making the announcement official on Sunday.

It’s the end of one of the most legendary and memorable careers in NBA history. In the throes of a post-Michael Jordan world, it was Bryant who captivated the fandom of millions, creating Laker fans that stretched from the West coast to the East. His trademarked turnaround jump shot, his vicious, rim-rocking dunks, his crazy-eyed underbite celebration after a particularly clutch basket -- you can see them all in your head right now, can’t you?

Kobe Bryant will never be embarrassed. He shot 1-14 on national TV Tuesday night as the Warriors rampaged over the 2-12 Lakers on their way to history. That won’t embarrass Kobe.

He understands how rich his legacy is in Los Angeles and in the NBA. Every basketball demigod meets mortality. Kobe has studied the careers of the greats. He surely recognizes his own demise, as he witnessed those that happened in front of him years ago, particularly that of Michael Jordan. When Kobe acknowledges that, barring a surprising change of heart, this will be his last season, he is admitting that he knows his time has come. He’s not an idiot. He can process the 1-14 nights and understand it’s over.

All kings, whether tyrant or saint, are commissioned a portrait at the end of their reign. How then, do we render Kobe Bryant?

If we should paint a definitive picture of Kobe as his career comes to a close, then in it, he should be alone. Of course, there are different types of solitude, each as unique as the loner himself. Kobe should be alone in the way that he has always been: in the spotlight, in the midst of a crowd, oppressed by a wave of defenders’ outstretched hands while his teammates watch. He should be posed under the five banners from his five championships.

“If you asked me today, this would be my last year. But you never know,” Bryant said Saturday, via ESPN Los Angeles’ Baxter Holmes. “We’ll keep it open. Whatever happens, happens.”

Lakers coach Byron Scott acknowledged the same thought after Sunday’s loss.