Kobe Bryant hints at retirement

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Kobe Bryant's 20th season in the NBA has not gone the way he would like so far and he is not sure if it will be his last.

The Los Angeles Lakers are 1-4 this season, while it is taking longer for Bryant, 37, to recover in between games.

Bryant - averaging 16.2 points and shooting just 32.1 percent from the field through five games - tore a rotator cuff in his right shoulder in January.

The NBA's third all-time leading scorer insists it is too early to decide whether or not he will return for another season or hang up his sneakers when the campaign is over.

"If you asked me today, this would be my last year," Bryant told reporters on Saturday. "But you never know.

"We'll keep it open. Whatever happens, happens."

Bryant is in the final year of his deal with the Lakers. Phil Jackson, his former coach with the Lakers, said he thought Kobe would play past the 2015-16 season, even if it was outside of Los Angeles.

However, Bryant was definitive about not playing for another franchise.

"I'm a Laker for life. I'm not playing anywhere else, no matter what," Bryant said on Friday. "It's just not going to happen."

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