National Basketball Association

Kobe pens cryptic letter warning his younger self not to give money to family

Published Jul. 20, 2016 12:00 p.m. ET

Andrew Lynch

With his NBA career over, Kobe Bryant has moved into a new era in his life as a storyteller -- and his latest tale is an emotional roller coaster.

Bryant, who's the Editorial Director for player-centric website "The Players' Tribune," wrote a rather vague letter to his 17-year-old self on Wednesday. Instead of offering advice on how to handle the league or sharing words of wisdom on how to get along with Shaquille O'Neal, though, Bryant warned young Kobe not to let his riches poison his relationships with his family.

Via The Players' Tribune:

Bryant writes that in the early days of his NBA career, he would buy family members material things -- cars, homes, taking care of their living expenses -- which merely made him feel good at the expense of their independence. Rather than use his influence to open doors for his parents and siblings, Bryant says, he got them addicted to material wealth. That, in turn, became a problem when he tried to correct what Bryant saw as a grave mistake.

That's a cryptic message from Bryant. Fortunately for us, he opened up about his relationship with his family to ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne back in April. Bryant used an expletive to describe his relationship with his parents and said that he hadn't spoken to his parents since a 2013 incident in which Bryant filed suit after they allegedly tried to sell a large amount of Kobe memorabilia without his permission.

Via ESPN.com:

That context makes Bryant's comments in his letter to his younger self all the more poignant:

Bryant's relationship with sisters Sharia and Shaya apparently wasn't much better. In that same ESPN article, Bryant said that he had to cut off his siblings to allow them to find their own paths.

As for his own family, Kobe and Vanessa Bryant are famously the proud parents of two lovely daughters (who like Steph Curry more than their own dad, apparently). And earlier this month, the Bryants announced that they're expecting their third daughter.

So let this letter be a warning to the youngest Bryants. Your dad's going to help you out along the way, but he expects his family members to blaze their own path through this world. It's that ol' Mamba mentality.