Kobe Bryant Was Doing the Last Thing You'd Expect Hours Before His Final NBA Game

Kobe Bryant reveals he "lost track of time" and was almost late for his final NBA game because he was editing a bunch of short stories.

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Complex Original

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In the hours leading up to Kobe Bryant’s final NBA game back on April 13, we imagine that Kobe was a very busy man. There were probably dozens of coaches and teammates—both past and present—texting and calling him about the momentous occasion. There were also probably reporters and other members of the media stalking Kobe and trying to steal a moment of his time to get a sound byte about his last hurrah. And of course, Kobe had to actually go out and play against the Jazz that night, so he had to physically and mentally prepare his 37-year-old body and mind to play his final 48 minutes for the Lakers. How in the world did he manage to do it all?

Well, as it turns out, Kobe was busy—but it wasn’t with basketball. In fact, it sounds like basketball was the furthest thing from his mind until about 4 p.m. that afternoon. He sat down with Wall Street Journal editor Dennis Berman at the WSJDLive conference in California on Tuesday night and talked at length about his $100 million venture capital fund, his company Kobe Inc., and all of the projects that he’s working on now that he's no longer playing basketball. And in doing so, he revealed that he’s so committed to those projects—which he's hoping will include movies, books, and more—that he was actually in the office working on one just a few hours before his final game.

"My last game, I was actually at the office until 4 o’clock, 4:15, actually editing a bunch of short stories," he said. "I lost track of time and looked at my watch and was like, 'Oh, I better go home. I got my last game to play.'"

Uh, editing a bunch of short stories? That is what Kobe did to prep for his final game? That sounds so…well, so Kobe. Of course he was working on his next career while finishing up his current one.

As Kobe said time and time again during his 30-minute talk with WSJ, he’s going for broke—hopefully not literally—when it comes to his post-NBA career passions. He wants to become a successful venture capitalist, and he’s also planning on using Kobe Inc. to inspire others. He revealed that he’s even got a novel in the works that he’s been outlining, writing, and rewriting for more than two years now. He was vague when he was asked to give details on the novel—"Don’t have one yet," he said when he was asked for the title of the novel, before adding, "Can’t tell you that," when he was asked for the plot—but Kobe is clearly taking a very Kobe-like approach to this retirement thing.

Oh, and just in case you’re wondering where he stands when it comes to the NBA, it sounds like he’s going to stay true to his word and steer clear of watching much basketball this season. Towards the end of the WSJ interview, he admitted that he didn’t care who won any of the games on the first night of the 2016-17 NBA season. "I have no championship on the line," he said. "So I have absolutely no reason to check the scores."

You can check out his entire WSJ interview in the clip above.

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