Eric Gay/AP
By all accounts, Kobe Bryant's 20th NBA season has been his worst.
The Lakers veteran is averaging 16 points on a wildly inefficient 16 shots per game, his FG% is all the way down to 32%, and from behind the 3-point arc he's shooting just 20%. The Lakers are 1-5, and Bryant is beginning to drop hints that this season will indeed be his last in the NBA.
But the end of the NBA season might not necessarily mean the end of competitive basketball as a whole for Bryant. On Monday, the 5-time NBA champion said he wants to play in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
"I would like to play," Bryant said in an interview with the AP. "I think it'd be awesome. A beautiful experience. I'm a global kid. I grew up in Italy, I know a lot of athletes from different parts of the world, from different sports. It'd be great to play in that environment."
Bryant helped the United States win gold in 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London. In January of 2014 Bryant said he wasn't going to play, but he's now apparently changed his mind and wants to make the 12-man roster. He also feels that he can still contribute to the squad.
"How I feel now is that I feel like I can add value from a leadership perspective and a defensive perspective," Bryant said.
"It would mean the world to me to be around those guys," he added. "I think to be able to have a chance to continue the relationship that I already have with most of those guys, talking and just kind of being around each other and understanding that this is it, it's just us being together, that would be fun."
As the AP noted, Bryant would be the oldest American Olympic basketball player ever, were he to make the team. Considering his current form, it might make more sense for Mike Krzyzewski to add Bryant as an assistant coach than a member of the actual roster.