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Kobe: ‘I’m a Laker for better or worse’

Kobe Bryant has a message for Phil Jackson, Los Angeles Lakers fans and anyone else who thinks he will finish his NBA career elsewhere.

“A lot of players want to go to different teams or contend to win championships,” Bryant told Yahoo Sports at the conclusion of the Lakers’ media day on Monday. “I’m a Laker, man. I’m a Laker for better or worse.”

Jackson, who coached Bryant and is now president of the New York Knicks, recently told New York media that he thinks Bryant could play for another team after his contract with the Lakers expires after this season.

“I don’t think it’s his last year,” Jackson said. “Sounds like it might be his last year as a Laker.”

Bryant, 37, is entering his 20th season with the Lakers. He’s making $23.5 million in the final year of his contract, and if he does continue to play, he expects he’ll do so in a Lakers uniform.

“I’m a Laker, man. How many times do I have to say that?” Bryant said “Dude, I bleed purple and gold.”

Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Jerry West and James Worthy played their entire career with the Lakers. Worthy, now a Lakers TV analyst who also will work with the team’s big men this season, expects Bryant to join that list upon retirement.

“This is where he made his life,” Worthy said. “It would mean a lot to him.”

Warner banned from football for life

Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has been banned for life from all football-related activity, the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee of the sport’s world governing body said on Tuesday.

The former Caribbean federation president “was found to have committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at Fifa and CONCACAF” said the Ethics Committee statement.

The 72-year-old’s ban covers all football activity at both a national and international level and is effective from September 25.

“In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other money-making schemes,” added the statement.

Warner is also fighting extradition from his homeland in Trinidad and Tobago to the United States to face 12 charges of wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering related to the ongoing Fifa corruption scandal.

He faces a hearing in his homeland in December.