As the Los Angeles Lakers' shooting guard Kobe Bryant continues his farewell tour, different teams have presented Bryant gifts and tribute videos for each city he goes to. As the Lakers visit the San Antonio Spurs this week, the Tim Duncan-led team will not have any tributes for the "Black Mamba" in the upcoming game.
According to hoopshype.com, since the Lakers are set to return on February 6, 2016, the Spurs will withhold the Kobe Bryant honoring until then.
As per 247sports.com, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich talked about Bryant and his retirement as they prepared to face the Lakers.
"All my Kobe memories are when he beat us," the head coach said. "They're not very fun. That's the truth."
"He brought it night after night," Popovich added. "He wanted to destroy everyone on the court. A lot of guys don't know about that mentality."
Bryant's farewell tour however has received much criticism as reported by latimes.com.
The report said "Bryant has taken 45 more shots than anyone on the team, including 49 more three-pointers than anyone else, yet he is shooting 30.6% overall, ranking him 117th among 117 NBA qualifiers."
It then added "That's right, one of the greatest Lakers ever is the worst shooter in basketball. Bryant has missed so much from beyond the arc that his number of three-point clanks - 107 - is greater than the number of three-pointers even attempted by anyone else on the Lakers."
The NBA veteran and former Most Valuable Player announced his retirement via theplayerstribune.com. The poem was a letter from Bryant to the game of basketball. It said "Dear Basketball, from the moment I started rolling my dad's tube socks and shooting imaginary game-winning shots in the Great Western Forum, I knew one thing was real: I fell in love with you."
It then concluded "And we both know, no matter what I do next, I'll always be that kid with the rolled up socks, garbage can in the corner, :05 seconds on the clock, ball in my hands. 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1"
