Lakers planning to honor Kobe Bryant at home games next season

While it may not be on the level of Derek Jeter's 2014 farewell tour with the New York Yankees, Kobe Bryant's 20th season with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2015-16 is going to be cause for celebration.

Bryant has been clear that he wouldn't want to do a proper farewell tour around the league, saying he'd feel weird and that it wouldn't be true to who he is. He's also refused to come out and say that 2015-16 will be his final season, though it's the last year on his contract, he'll be 37 when it's over and his last three seasons have been marred by injury.

Whether Bryant likes it or not, the Lakers are preparing to honor Bryant in his 20th year with the team, something they did for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1988-89, even though he was far less tenured as a Laker. Part-owner and president Jeanie Buss revealed in a recent interview that the franchise is exploring several ways of honoring Bryant at home games throughout the year:

We will make it special.
...
We're not asking the NBA to celebrate Kobe. With Kareem, it was endearing to watch every city do something special and thank him for all that. But that was clearly Kareem's last year. I don't know if we're going into this clearly knowing that this is Kobe's last year. Only Kobe can decide that.

Even if Bryant isn't openly committed to calling it quits, playing a 20th season with a single franchise has never been done in the history of the NBA. He'll be the longest-tenured player with any single franchise, ever, and holds the franchise record for career games, minutes, points, steals, 3-pointers and more.

If Bryant changes course and decides to announce his intention to retire after 2015-16, it's certainly possible that other franchises would get in on the act and honor him as well, a la Jeter. At the very least, it's a safe bet a final chance to see Bryant live would sell out opposing arenas for the year.