Kobe shutting it down after All-Star Weekend?

So here's an assertion I'm seeing a few people throw out in comments sections and so forth: Kobe Bryant will shut it down and not play any further games after the All-Star break, allowing the 2016 NBA All-Star Game to be his big farewell.

I can see where they're coming from. He's missed a few games with nagging injuries, and sat out the second night of back-to-backs. His struggles this season are well-documented, so when people say he may not want to slog through the latter half of the season and hurt his averages just to pad his totals in a lot of losses, they may have a point. The Lakers aren't going to make the Playoffs, so he's not going to have a shot at Kareem and MJ's marks for career Playoff points. The All-Star festivities would be a nice celebration and send-off.

Still...it seems highly highly unlikely that someone with as much pride and competitiveness as Kobe would bow out like that. I think it's far more likely - as in, over 90% at least - that he pushes on through and concludes his career on April 13th in the Staples Center, against the Utah Jazz. Even if the West did something ridiculous and force-fed him the ball to score 100 points in the All-Star Game, I don't see him hanging it up then and there. Well, maybe if they did that, but even then, I doubt it.

The only way I see it happening is if injuries strike. And if that were to happen, I could see him pulling a Charles Barkley and playing a couple of minutes in the season finale, just to be able to go out kind of on his own terms.

Kobe will never stop playing unless he gets injured and will be forced to miss out on games.

Kobe will never stop playing unless he gets injured and will be forced to miss out on games.

This.

He isn't Carmelo.

I agree. The show will go on as this is last of Kobe. He has already sat out how many games in past 5 seasons? I can hardly recall when he was relevant in this league. Kobe under maintenance mode will finish the season, I have no doubt about that.

Competitive Kobe would have been nice but seems everyone has to settle for reminiscence.

I'd be very shocked if he shut it down early especially when you here players like Shaq saying how much they struggled to adjust to like after basketball, I just can't see Kobe wanting to leave until there are no more games for the Lakers to play in.

I'd be sad to see him leave early too, I was never the biggest Kobe fan in the world but I respect the hell out of what he has done in the nba and the way that he kind of helped us all say goodbye to Jordan knowing that we had the "next Jordan" type player coming through for the future.

He won't do it. This whole season is basically him playing one last time for fans who are going out of their way to see him play. He'll ride it out.

Every team for the rest of the season that is going to host the Lakers are probably expecting him to come and play too. At the beginning of every game you give some sort of commemorative ceremony for Kobe, then you get a exhibition level intensity game. This helps the host team sell some tickets to watch Kobe play one last time and the host team has a chance for an easy W.

phpBB [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fkcVVAd6Uo