The retirement of Kobe Bryant

In his 1566th NBA game, Kobe Bryant put on one last scoring gala against the Utah Jazz. The five-time NBA champion had 60 points for the last-place Lakers, bringing his all-times points tally to a staggering 33,643. The 37-year-old's production allowed Los Angeles to overcome a 15-point deficit as the Lakers collected their 17th win of the season.

Kobe Bryant certainly does not feel the same in season No. 20 as he did earlier in his career. Back, shoulder and knee injuries allowed him to only play 41 of 164 games between 2013 and 2015. The 2008 most valuable player decided it was time to stop, and he announced in November he would retire at the end of the season.

When Kobe Bryant started his NBA career in 1996, not many players were turning professional straight out of high school. The Charlotte Hornets drafted him 13th overall in the 1996 NBA draft before trading him to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Vlade Divac. Because Bryant was 17 years old, his parents had to sign his first NBA contract for him.

Kobe Bryant gave himself the nickname "Black Mamba," but he lived up to his snake nickname with his quickness and his precision. After mostly sitting on the bench for his first two NBA seasons, Bryant finally cracked the starting line-up consistently. As a 20-year-old, he started in 50 games in the 1998/99 season and averaged just under 20 points per game.

After winning the 1998 title with the Chicago Bulls, Phil Jackson vowed he would never coach again, but he took the helm at Kobe Bryant's Lakers after a year off. Bryant became one of the NBA's best players under Jackson, and the two won three straight titles from 2000 to 2002. Apart from a one-year hiatus, Jackson remained Bryant's coach until 2011, winning two more titles in 2009 and 2010.

Bryant may be one of 26 basketball players with at least five championship rings, but he and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are the only players to make 18 NBA all-star teams. He was also the scoring champion twice and won the league MVP in 2008. The most impressive of his marks? His 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors in January, 2006, the second-highest single-game point total in NBA history.

Next to his NBA glory, Kobe Bryant won Olympic gold twice with Team USA - 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London. After the 2012 triumph for the United States, Bryant sparked controversy when he said the 2012 USA "Dream Team" was better than the 1992 version. Several members from the original "Dream Team" criticized the daft claim, most prominently the team's second-best scorer, Michael Jordan.

For much of his career, Kobe Bryant was compared to his childhood idol, Michael Jordan. The two played against each other a few times, something Jordan eluded to when he wished Bryant farewell: "When I look back on the first time we played against each other, and the competitive drive I saw within your eyes, even though the knowledge wasn't quite there yet, it was very invigorating."

Kobe Bryant also became the first athlete to be part of Hollywood's Walk of Fame. In February 2011, the Lakers star cemented his Los Angeles legacy, his impressions near the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. "I feel like I've grown up in this city, and we've had a lot of ups and downs, but here we are," he said. "I just feel extremely honored to be able to do this."

Kobe Bryant can even make the president of the United States look good. In 2009, the Lakers became the first team to visit the White House under President Barack Obama, a big basketball fan himself. Bryant, who broke his finger during the finals, got plaudits from the president: "If I had a broken finger, I would have trouble getting out of bed, and he's still leading the team day in and day out."

Though Kobe Bryant had many exploits in his NBA career, one specter looms over it. In 2003, a 19-year-old hotel employee accused Bryant of rape. The criminal case was ultimately dropped, but the accusation tarnished his reputation. With sponsors pulling their endorsements, Bryant was forced to reinvent himself, which involved him changing his jersey number from No. 8 to No. 24.

Kobe Bryant's marriage also came with some drama. Bryant and his wife Vanessa have been together since 1999. The two got married in 2001, but neither his parents nor his two sisters were in attendance. Bryant's parents disapproved of the marriage, not only because they thought he was too young to get married, but also because Vanessa was not African American. The two are still married today.

A 20-year career is now over, so what now for Kobe Bryant? He has yet to reveal his future plans, but he has already ruled out a comeback with Team USA in the 2016 Rio Olympics. He apparently does not want to be a coach either, saying: "Coaching? Me? That is the funniest thing I've ever heard." We will have to wait and see where Bryant's career will take him next.