When Kobe Bryant hung up his sneakers after the 2016 season, the Los Angeles Lakers great was stepping away from the game of basketball, and nothing is going to get him back into it. Not even a lucrative offer to play in Ice Cube's BIG3 will be enough to get him back on the court competitively.

Bryant was recently on The HoopsHype podcast with Alex Kennedy and was asked a wide variety of questions, including the possibility of playing in the BIG3.

No. (Long pause) No. Cube is a good friend of mine and he’s asked me repeatedly, but the answer is always going to be no.

Bryant seems happy right now helping produce movies, write books, and focus on his new show on ESPN+.

Well, the goal for us here at the studio is always the same: It’s about quality above quantity… quality above all else. That’s our focus every day. We have novels that will be coming out here in March of 2019. With the Detail show [on ESPN+], we’re working on extending that into different sports. We have a really great children’s podcast that will be coming out in late August. So we’re really hard at work, trying to create content for kids and for families. It’s stuff that is going to inspire them and also educate them to a certain extent. We’re insanely focused on those things right now.

Bryant is already content with what he was able to do on the basketball court, and now he is using basketball to help others understand the game better. In a few years, there might be an itch to get back out on the court, but for now, Bryant is too busy with other projects.