| Advertisement |
Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant is retired from basketball, but he's eyeing another trophy: an Oscar. Bryant's Dear Basketball received an Oscar nomination on Tuesday for best animated short. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences tweeted out the nominees for the category on Tuesday.
Advertisement
The animated short is based on a poem Kobe wrote for The Players' Tribune. Bryant produced the animated short, teaming up with director and supervising producer Glen Keane.
Negative Space, Revolting Rhymes, Lou and Garden Party were also nominated.
"What?? This is beyond the realm of imagination," Bryant tweeted Tuesday morning.
"It means so much that the @TheAcademy deemed #DearBasketball worthy of contention. Thanks to the genius of @GlenKeanePrd & John Williams for taking my poem to this level. It's an honor to be on this team. #OscarNoms."
The Academy Awards are on March 4 on ABC.
"Congratulations to @kobebryant on the Oscar nomination for his short film Dear Basketball," fellow Lakers legend Earvin Magic Johnson tweeted Tuesday night.
What?? This is beyond the realm of imagination. It means so much that the @TheAcademy deemed #DearBasketball worthy of contention. Thanks to the genius of @GlenKeanePrd & John Williams for taking my poem to this level. It's an honor to be on this team. #OscarNoms pic.twitter.com/M2joyk9D1V
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) January 23, 2018
Bryant's poem in The Players' Tribune details his love for basketball, beginning as a six-year-old, up until his retirement.
"You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream And I'll always love you for it. But I can't love you obsessively for much longer. This season is all I have left to give. My heart can take the pounding My mind can handle the grind But my body knows it's time to say goodbye," Bryant wrote.
