Kobe Bryant News: “I’m extremely loyal to the Lakers”

The talk on Twitter and social media following Saturday’s loss to the Warriors was, for whatever reason, about the likelihood of Kobe Bryant staying with the Lakers for the remainder of his contract, which will likely be bad teams who won’t make the playoffs.

However, Bryant addressed those murmurs in an interview with Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports. Most specifically, he pledged his allegiance to the Lakers no matter the situation.

"“I hear the chatter of Kobe should ask out and he should go and play for a contender in this latter stage of his career,” Bryant told Yahoo Sports. “But that’s not what I do. I’m extremely loyal to the Lakers.“I believe in fighting through the tough times as well as enjoying the good times. It’s my responsibility to get us to be the best that we can be. It’s important that we approach that on a day-to-day basis.”“I’ve enjoyed a great amount of success here. You can’t just enjoy the successful times and then run away from the bad ones. No, I don’t even think about [departing]. I’m a Laker.”"

While Lakers fans had no doubt that Bryant was going to retire a Laker, listening to him publicly shoot down the claims is certainly reassurance.

Despite Bryant’s hot start in which he’s averaging 24.8 points per contest, the Lakers are 0-4. Considering Bryant’s past where he demanded a trade in the summer of 2007 when the Lakers were struggling to put together a championship-worthy team.

However, as we all remember, they made a move for Pau Gasol and the rest is history. This time, however, Bryant is in it for the long haul.

What do you think of Bryant’s commitment to the Lakers?