Evidently, Kobe Bryant is not a Dylan Thomas fan.
We can forgive No. 24 if he's not up on his 20th-century Welsh poetry, but you'd have thought the famous opening stanza from Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" would have some special appeal for a superstar now facing the twilight of his basketball life.
Do not go gentle into that good night, / Old age should burn and rave at close of day; / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Bryant, whose competitive fire has always burned hotter than anyone's, isn't doing any raging at the moment—not if we're to take his measured demeanor and newfound candor seriously.
In an interview in China during a Nike Rise press tour, Bryant was subdued. And if you squinted hard enough, you could see hints of something strange in the way he spoke and carried himself: a sense of acceptance.
Make no mistake, Bryant maintains a focused manner. He seems confident. But he's no longer bristling at the concept of his own decline. In fact, he's confronting it.
"I can say I want to be able to jump as high as I used to. I ...
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Article written by Grant Hughes