Kobe Bryant Retiring After Next Season? Will Play Small Forward for Lakers in 2015-16

While the Los Angeles Lakers are still recovering from the shadow of the failure that was supposed to be the Kobe Bryant-Dwight Howard-Steve Nash "Big 3", the future looks brighter as the team moves forward with backcourt talents in Jordan Clarkson, D'Angelo Russell and big man Julius Randle.

Bryant is facing a tough time ahead as he transitions away from the NBA and from an era that saw him as the Lakers' franchise player and the league's megastar. Gary Vitti, a long-time Lakers trainer who is retiring after next season, finishing a 32-year career that saw him care for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and James Worthy, told the LA Times about a recent conversation he had with Kobe:

"He was asking about our young kids, and I said, 'You cannot believe how quick and athletic Jordan Clarkson is. He looks fantastic.' I said I personally thought D'Angelo Russell is going to be a star. He makes hard things look easy when he has the ball in his hands.

"Then Kobe said to me, 'Well, then who's going to play [small forward]?' I looked at him and I said, 'You.' And with absolute, 100% confidence, he said, 'I can do that.'"

Now that the Lakers have an infusion of young talent and must forge a future along the road to prominence without its once-dominant player, Kobe seems ready to do what the team and those young players require of him in his twentieth and final season with the Los Angeles Lakers, on a contract worth $25 million.

"He has indicated to me that this is it," Mitch Kupchak responded when asked about the possibility of Kobe Bryant playing beyond 2015-16 on SiriusXM NBA radio. "I think first and foremost, he's on the last year of a deal," the Los Angeles Lakers General Manager said. "There have been no discussions about anything going forward. I don't think there will be."

While the success of playing Bryant at the small forward position remains to be seen next season, it's certain to say that Kobe will remain Kobe. He has played only nine percent of his minutes in the small forward position since the 2000-01 season, according to statistics sites like Basketball Reference. Regardless of his success next year, Kobe Bryant's legacy is well in the history books, and he can leave the NBA knowing the mark he left on it.