Lakers News: Vanessa Bryant Mourns Kobe Bryant’s Short Retirement On Four-Year Anniversary

Four years ago on April 13, 2016, Kobe Bryant retired at the conclusion of the 2015-16 NBA season with the Los Angeles Lakers after scoring 60 points.

In the greatest career finale in professional sports history, Bryant made many clutch shots down the stretch en route to a 101-96 win over the Utah Jazz.

As most athletes usually struggle in retirement, Bryant was able to make up for lost time with his family while building Kobe Inc. and Granity Studios.

Unfortunately, Bryant, his daughter Gianna Bryant, and seven other passengers tragically lost their lives heading to a basketball game on Jan. 26.

On the four-year anniversary of Bryant’s final game, Vanessa Bryant mourned her husband’s short retirement in a heartbreaking post, via Instagram:

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My husband worked his ass off for 20 years. Gave it his all. All he wanted was to spend time with our girls and me to make up for lost time. He wanted to be there for every single milestone and special moment in our girls lives. He only got to enjoy 3 years and 9 months of retirement. We had 2 more daughters, he won an Oscar, he opened Granity studios, he became a 5x best selling author and coached Gianna’s basketball team in that time. She worked hard and gave her all 7 days a week just like her daddy. I wish I could go back to that morning, every day. I wish they had a normal local game on 1/26. Life truly isn’t fair. This is just senseless.

A post shared by Vanessa Bryant ???? (@vanessabryant) on Apr 13, 2020 at 10:37am PDT

With the tragedy happening nearly three months ago, everyone associated with Bryant is still struggling with it. After 20 seasons with the Lakers, the 41 year old had so much to give to his wife and four daughters in retirement.

Since Bryant’s death, he was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and his latest book is No. 1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list.