Kobe Bryant: Don’t want Jazz to take it easy at all in my final game--dopoo sportswear

The next time Lakers icon Kobe Bryant appears on the Staples Center court, it will be for the final game of his NBA career.

Has Bryant looked forward to that final game, April 13 against the Utah Jazz, and imagined what it will be like?

"I try not to do it too much," Bryant said Wednesday night, "and just make yourself emotional."

He added: "Just showing up and playing. Showing up and playing and hoping my body feels pretty damn good and I can get up and down the floor and run freely and play this game at the highest level of competition one more time."

His preparation for that final game, he said, will remain the same.

"I won’t allow it to be any different," said Bryant, 37, who is retiring after 20 NBA seasons. "One more time and go through same routine. Same group of people. One more time."

Could Bryant imagine a perfect sort of ending? For some Lakers fans, a fitting ending would be Bryant hitting a game-winning shot. He wouldn’t mind that outcome, but he wishes for a different send-off.

"Yeah, win a championship," he said, "but that’s not happening, so there you go. That’s done. The dream’s done. Dream’s done. For me, it’s coming out and playing in front of the fans and competing hard and playing against Utah, and them not taking it easy at all. They beat us by like 40 the last few times we played them. So I expect them to come and try to do the same thing.

"To me, that is the greatest form of competition. That’s best last game you can have -- a very competitive one, a physical one. That’s the way basketball should be. In terms of the end, I don’t know, man. I really don’t think about that that much; I just like the game itself."

He’s not sure what his emotions will be that night.

"When the time comes, you never know," Bryant said. "I might be sitting here with tears flowing out of my eyes. I doubt it, but it could happen. I don’t know. We’ll see."

Fans’ emotions were high during Wednesday’s penultimate home game, and Bryant could sense it. He checked out in the final minute of the 91-81 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers to a roaring standing ovation, with fans chanting his name as loudly and for as long as they have at any point this season.

"This is the next-to-last game ever in this building. It’s pretty crazy," said Bryant, who scored a game-high 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting in nearly 28 minutes. "So I certainly can feel it. As soon as you run out at the start of the game, I could feel it."

Added Bryant: "I can feel it, and it feels pretty damn awesome. Going through the years of losing and not leaving the Lakers makes it all worthwhile standing here and taking the good with the bad and the fans embracing that and understanding that we ride together. That’s a love that you can’t break.

This 9-Year-Old Just Crushed a 24-Hour Fitness Competition—Dopoo sportswear

Most 9-year-olds are trying to keep up in the mile run in gym class. Milla Bizzotto, on the other hand, just crushed a race designed by U.S. Navy SEALs for ultra-fit adults.

 

BattleFrog 24 lasts two grueling days and involves running 36 miles, swimming 18 kilometers (about 11 miles), and tackling six laps of obstacle courses. Sound intense? It is. Milla trained for nine months — five days a week for three hours a day — to get into fighting shape.

 

She is the youngest entrant ever and says she’s competing as a form of “inspiration for the iPad generation.” But it’s also part of an effort to fight bullies and inspire others to do the same.

 

“I just don’t want people to quit because they don’t believe in themselves,” Milla told CBS Miami. Her father (and coach) says that Milla had been bullied in school but that the trouble stopped once she started training and gained confidence. “I think the bullying thing has died down without her having to take physical action, just because her outlook is so much different now that she knows how to defend herself,” he said. www.dopoosportswear.com

 

That said, there can be risks to adolescents pushing themselves too hard. Doctors warn that overexercising at a young age can lead to overuse injuries and put a strain on bodies that aren’t yet fully developed. As always, speak with a doctor before you (or your child) make any big fitness changes.

 

Still, if nothing else, Milla has inspired this beauty editor. If a 9-year-old can make it through 24 hours of running, climbing, swimming, and crawling, I can make it through an hour of yoga — super flexible mat neighbors be damned.