Kobe Bryant: If you aren’t a fan of his, then he’s the man you love to hate. It was a sad day for the game of basketball as 37-year-old NBA star announced just last week on The Players’ Tribune that he is calling it quits after this 2015-2016 season. Bryant explained his reasoning behind the decision to retire from the game during an interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America. He says it’s all due to meditation.

“I try to have at least 15 minutes of still time and just kind of sit in my thoughts in the morning and just kind of meditate. Normally what happens with me is my mind would always drift to the game. Always,” Bryant said. “And then I found myself sitting there. My mind wouldn’t drift towards the game all the time anymore and that’s when I started realizing, ‘You know what? It’s getting close. It’s getting close.’ Because now I’m not obsessively thinking about the game anymore. It’s not wired into my subconscious the way it used to be.”

But did retirement come too late for Kobe? Age and injuries robbed him of the youthful energy he played with for much of his career, and it’s been pretty noticeable. Bryant has been averaging 15.8 points per game and shooting 31 percent from the field this season after a 20-year NBA career of shooting 45 percent. He shot 7 of 26 last Tuesday in a loss to the Sixers.

Nonetheless, we cannot deny that Kobe is going out as a legend, one of the best to do it, and a top player in NBA history. Bryant has won five NBA titles, two NBA finals MVP trophies, was a 17-time All-Star, and won Olympic medals in 2008 and 2012. I’m sure I can speak for everyone when I say that it has been an honor and privilege watching him play growing up in my generation. The game most definitely will never be the same.