Kobe pens remorseful letter to 17-year-old self

Kobe Bryant has learned a lot over the past two decades. Now that his NBA career is over, the recently retired megastar is doing some reflecting.

The Black Mamba wrote a letter in The Players' Tribune to his 17-year-old self. In it, he rather contritely confesses to making mistakes that caused harm to his loved ones.

He tells the young man - fresh out of high school and about to embark on a journey with the Los Angeles Lakers - to "figure out a way to invest in the future of your family and friends."

Invest, not give, he clarifies.

He explains that although giving material things to people he cares about may seem like the right decision, he'll later learn that in doing so, he was actually holding them back.

"You will come to understand that you were taking care of them because it made YOU feel good, it made YOU happy to see them smiling and without a care in the world - and that was extremely selfish of you," Bryant writes.

"While you were feeling satisfied with yourself, you were slowly eating away at their own dreams and ambitions. You were adding material things to their lives, but subtracting the most precious gifts of all: independence and growth."

The 37-year-old continues, imploring the younger him to use the resources he has to set others up to succeed. Failure to do so, he warns, will lead his family and friends to suffer from an addiction that "only leads to anger, resentment, and jealousy from everybody involved, including (himself)."

The most important advice Bryant can give the teenage version of him?

"Make sure your parents remain PARENTS and not managers."

He concludes: "Your life is about to change, and things are about to come at you very fast. ... Trust me, setting things up right from the beginning will avoid a ton of tears and heartache, some of which remains to this day."