Kobe Bryant Finally Responds to Coming Back of Retirement Rumors

There’s been much speculation over the possible comeback of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, and he decided to put an end to rumors.

Fans were convinced that Kobe Bryant will come out of his retirement same as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. Yes, Jordan did it twice.

Bryant never said anything about this, but his plan to play in Ice Cube’s BIG3 League fueled the rumors.

The 40-year-old basketball legend went on The Rich Eisen Show to bust the rumors. “There’s about a zero percent chance that I come back and play. Nothing. Done. That’s it,” Bryant said, and went on explaining his reasons for just sticking to his retirement decision.

“Never. Here’s the thing, for us athletes, it’s really hard to transition from that. I was really personal about it when I wrote “Dear Basketball.” That is the true challenge, of finding what comes next. Finding something you love to do every bit as much as you love your first passion. That is a challenge for us. I think unfortunately for us athletes, we’ve been pigeonholed into thinking that we can only be one thing. So when I retired, everybody said, ‘OK, he’s too competitive. He’s not going to know what to do with himself. He’s going to have to come back.’ I took that as a personal challenge of them thinking I’m this one-dimensional person. That all I know is how to dribble a ball, shoot the ball and play basketball and compete at that level. So I took it as a personal challenge. I will never come back to the game. Ever. I’m here to show people we can do much more than that. Creating this business, winning an Oscar, winning an Emmy, and an Annie, those are things that are showing athletes that come after, ‘No, no. There’s more to this thing.’ So I would never (return). It’s not even a thought,” he said.

Well, that’s his final word, and we’ll respect it. Maybe his LeBron-hating fans will finally accept the fact that he’s retired. For good.