Kobe Bryant Comments on Retirement, Speculation About Playing Overseas and More

Given the quality of his play, age and the direction of the Los Angeles Lakers, it seems logical Kobe Bryant will call it a career after this season.

It would make sense for Bryant to retire in April when the Los Angeles Lakers' season, his 20th in the NBA, will likely come to an end. Bryant is non-committal about retirement, though when ESPN.com's Marc Stein brought up the possibility of playing overseas after his time in the NBA, Bryant said it's not in his plans:

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Kobe Bryant has made it clear he doesn't know for sure yet if this is going to be his final NBA season, even if it sure looked that way on his recent stops in Brooklyn, New York and Dallas, when Bryant seemed to be soaking in every last ounce of the experience in his potential last stop in each of those cities.

What does seem clear, though, is that the oft-floated idea of Kobe playing in, say, Italy for a season after leaving the NBA is not in his thinking at the moment. In a brief chat after his recent Dallas visit, Bryant told me that, at this point, he doesn't have plans to play abroad when he finally sheds the purple and gold, be it after this season or beyond.

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Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak told SiriusXM NBA Radio (h/t ESPN.com's Baxter Holmes) back in May that Bryant informed him this year will be his last with the Purple and Gold. 

It's hard to imagine Kobe playing in another uniform that isn't a Western Conference All-Star or Lakers jersey. Even if it's in Italy, where he spent part of his childhood, Bryant playing one more year does not seem like a good idea.

He's already going down with the ship with the 2-9 Lakers, which features Bryant as the team's leading scorer at 16.9 points per game. There is a more realistic chance that he signs with another NBA team rather than playing overseas.