Every day upon rising from sleep, Kobe Bryant said, his back and his feet ached. A week later, after a rare victory over the Pistons, Bryant revealed he was "barely standing up. ... I'm not looking forward to walking to the car."

But through the 30 percent shooting nights, through the mocking NBA 2K satire video and the abject refusal of his body to perform the otherworldly tasks that his mind had grown so accustomed to, Bryant still wasn't ready to say good-bye.

He is now.

In an essay in Players' Tribune, Bryant announced Sunday night that he will retire after the 2015-16 season, his 20th in the NBA. Predictably, since Bryant remains the most popular active basketball player on the planet, his missive crashed the website.