Lakers: What Will Kobe Bryant Miss the Most?

Kobe Bryant is retiring after this season, but what will the Lakers star miss the most about the NBA and the game? 

It’s been less than a week since Kobe Bryant announced that he will be retiring at the end of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2015-16 season, yet we’re already four games closer to the end of his illustrious career since the news first broke.

Considering the reactions from every crowd he’s played in front of since the announcement and the millions of Lakers fans and NBA fans that have expressed various sentiments online, Kobe is obviously going to be sorely missed once he’s done playing. That being said, we don’t really know what Bryant is going to miss about the game when he’s gone.

Luckily, Kobe said some light on that subject after the Lakers’ loss to the Hawks on Friday night. When asked what the future Hall-of-Famer would miss the most after he retires, Bryant replied in a surprisingly poetic fashion:

Perhaps it’s not actually that surprising that Kobe would miss all of the little things about the game once he finally hangs it up. After all, this is the player who announced his impending retirement from the NBA by writing a love poem to the game of basketball; it’d make sense that he’d miss all of the minute details just as much—if not more—than he’ll miss the major aspects of the game and league.

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The one thing Bryant said that is pretty defining of Kobe, though, is that he’ll miss the “buzz of the lights” in what amounts to an empty gym. For one of the most relentless workers and competitors to ever set foot on an NBA court, that’s perfectly fitting in terms of the things that he’s actually going to miss.

Lakers fans are going to miss Bryant a great deal once he’s gone, which is only further proved with every passing game and the outpouring of love and respect that’s shown to Kobe. However, quotes like this make you wonder if Bryant won’t miss the game of basketball and all that that entails far more than we could ever miss him.