Battling two serious injuries in consecutive years, torn Achilles and knee fracture, Kobe Bryant has had more time doing the rounds fielding questions about all sorts of different topics. One topic of discussion that has come up more and more has been what his plans are for life after basketball.
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In a recent interview with CNBC to promote Body Armor, Kobe was asked about possibly going into coaching or becoming an owner after his playing days. Kobe said the following:
Why not go the Phil Jackson route? Why not coach? Why not be more of an owner? Why not keep your game, your skills, in a capacity that’s more on the court than going off into more of the commercial space?
“Well, you know, you have to find something that you’re passionate about, and I’m passionate about playing the game. Coaching, I just don’t have that obsession to be a great coach. Business is something that’s always been very interesting to me, and, you know, it’s exciting to kind of start a new journey where I feel like I’m a okie all over again and speaking to extremely successful people and picking their brain about some of the biggest lessons they learned through their process and then trying to draw a common denominator between what I’ve learned as an athlete and winning championships versus running a successful company.”
With Kobe recently signing a two-year contract extension, the five-time NBA champion may be done playing the game of basketball after the 2015-16 NBA season. Although Kobe hasn’t officially said he’ll retire after his contract with the Lakers expires, it’d be safe to assume he’ll call it a career a few months before turning 38-years-old.
That being said, there are bound to be options opening up for the future Hall of Famer. Anything can happen between now and the summer of 2016, but if Kobe does decide to retire, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to change his stance on possibly coaching or becoming an owner in the NBA.
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