Star guard still recovering from Achilles injury.
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is keen to re-pay the franchise for offering him a two-year extension that will see him end his career at the Staples Center.
The 35-year-old is currently recovering from an Achilles injury he sustained in the regular season last year, and has revealed that he may be a few weeks way from returning.
Nevertheless, the franchise have agreed an extension with him which will see him remain as the highest paid player in the league with a $48.5m deal.
“It makes me want to run through a wall for them,” Bryant said, as reported by ESPN.
“It kind of just adds more fuel to the fire of being able to come out and kind of prove to everybody that [the Lakers] are right and everybody else is wrong.”
Bryant insisted that there were no negotiations with the deal, and that he merely agreed to what was put in front of him by the Lakers.
However, that hasn’t stopped critics suggesting that the level of his contract will have an adverse effect on the Lakers moving forward, as he limits them more in terms of their salary cap.
The likes of Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki have taken drastic pay cuts in order to allow their teams to remain competitive during the final few years of their careers, but Bryant insists that the Lakers still have the room to bring in top names.
Following the 2015-16 season, it will be the Mamba’s 20th season with the Lakers, beating the previous record set by John Stockton after his NBA record of playing all 19 seasons of his career with the Utah Jazz.
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