Father Time has caught up with Kobe Bryant. Although there are rumors that Bryant may retire from playing basketball after a season ending shoulder injury, the L.A. Lakers' guard still has one more year and $25 million in his contract, so it's a certainty that Bryant will be returning next year in the NBA.
Bryant will be entering his 20th season in the NBA with the "retirement question" hanging over his head.
The 36 year old basketball superstar told L.A Times, "As I sit here right now, do I want to play after next year? No. That could change."
"Who the hell said I'm retiring?" he asked. "It was never a question of if I was going to play next year."
The L.A. Lakers superstar is doing the rounds for his documentary in Showtime, "Kobe Bryant's Muse." The documentary reveals what goes behind the statistics of Kobe Bryant's career It also explores the mentorships, allies, and rivalries that have helped shape Bryant's brilliant 18-year career in the NBA, and offering access to his daily experiences, his lifelong inspirations and the battle with his greatest personal challenge yet.
"Kobe Bryant's Muse" was a brainchild of the five-time NBA Champion. His goal is to enlighten and inspire by showcasing his influences and "muses." It explores Bryant's journey from his childhood in Italy to his basketball stardom.
"We're going back and revisiting key moments of my life, figuring out how did that make me grow as a person," Bryant said. "I can't lie - at the start of this process, I'm thinking this is going to be great. But when I actually started confronting the journey, there were moments that were scary.... At the end, it was therapeutic. It actually helped me deal with things that were affecting me that I had pushed to the side."
The 83 minute documentary was directed by Gotham Chopra.
"I didn't want to write a book - I don't have the patience to do that," Bryant said in a phone interview. "We wanted to create something really different, very truthful. Cinematically, we wanted to do something that would be different from the ways documentaries are shot. This was about doing something that was fun, but also honest."
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