Kobe Bryant Vows To Play In Lakers’ Final 9 Games Of The Season
Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
It has been another rough season for the Los Angeles Lakers. The once-proud NBA franchise has gone from a perennial title contender to arguably one of the worst teams in the league in only three years time.
Along with the franchise set to finish the season with the worst record in team history, five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant head into retirement in the next couple of weeks. Bryant is playing in his 20th and final season with the Lakers and has struggled to stay healthy in the final stretch of his career.
Bryant has missed six of the last 14 games for the Lakers with the superstar’s playing status being management game-by-game. Kobe has dealt with persistent soreness in his surgically repaired right shoulder, but despite dealing with these aches and pains, the Lakers star vows to play in the team’s final nine games of the season via Lakers’ Twitter account:
Kobe Bryant says he plans to play in all of the Lakers' remaining games, "unless something drastic happens."
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) March 28, 2016
On Monday night, the Lakers will face the Utah Jazz on the road in Bryant’s final game in Salt Lake City. Including the matchup against the Jazz, the team has more games away from the Staples Center than at the arena in Los Angeles.
Following the final game against the Jazz, the team will return to Los Angeles for Wednesday’s game against the visiting Miami Heat. Bryant will square off against fellow superstar Dwyane Wade for the last time before gearing up for the Boston Celtics on Sunday.
The remaining opponents for the Lakers include the Jazz (twice), Heat, Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers (twice), New Orleans Pelicans, Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder.
