Kobe Bryant to retire at end of NBA season

In an open letter posted online Sunday, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant announced that the current NBA season will be his last.

"My heart can take the pounding, my mind can handle the grind, but my body knows it's time to say goodbye," the 37-year-old wrote on The Players Tribune. Bryant, now in his 20th season, has been with the Lakers since 1996, when he was a 17-year-old brought to the team after Vlade Divac was sent to the Charlotte Hornets. He has won five NBA championships and two Olympic gold medals, and was an NBA All-Star pick 17 times and an NBA MVP. In a statement, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called Bryant "one of the greatest players in the history of our game."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.