There are less than 10 games remaining in Kobe Bryant’s NBA career.
That has somehow snuck up on us, or at least yours truly, despite the thorough farewell he has played through. On some level, I personally just haven’t come to terms that the NBA will exist without moving forward. It’s a bizarre, unsettling feeling, one that is more indicative of Kobe’s longstanding ubiquity than it is my opinion of him as a player and person.
Anyway, the Lakers have nine games remaining before their regular season to a close. Kobe has already missed 17 tilts, and it would stand to reason he’ll miss more as he tries to make it through the entire year.
But that’s not the plan:
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
This is to be expected. Even Kobe, rarely the sentimentalist throughout his career, will want to soak in everything as he speeds toward the finish line.
Many of the Lakers’ final tilts pit him against familiar foes one last time, including Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant, James Harden and Chris Paul (twice), so he won’t want to miss any of those matchups. Just two of those games are at home—three if you count both Los Angeles Clippers contests—so that’ll drum up Kobe’s appearances by default. The Lakers have four official home games left, and Kobe, as a tribute to the fans, isn’t going to miss a single one.
The most important thing for him, at least in theory, is making it to Wednesday, April 13. That’s when he’ll suit up in purple and gold for the last time, at home, against the Utah Jazz. Every decision he makes between now and then has to be with that date, that game, that moment, in mind.
