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Kobe Bryant Takes NBA Retirement News to Twitter, Not TV. Chris Sacca Is Pumped.

Social media and Derek Jeter’s site over ESPN.

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Last week, my colleague (and more avid sports fan) Jason Del Rey noted very nicely how Twitter’s Moments feature has replaced ESPN’s SportsCenter for his sports intake. Mark another one up for new media today.

On Sunday, outgoing NBA star Kobe Bryant opted not to make his expected retirement announcement on broadcast TV. Instead, he went for social media, posting his retirement poem on Facebook and Twitter simultaneously. It links to Players Tribune, a site for athletes from fellow superstar Derek Jeter, which subsequently crashed after the Kobe post.

https://twitter.com/kobebryant/status/671113940584275968

It took about an hour for Twitter to add the news to its Moments tab. (Facebook’s trending section, at least for me, does not have the news, but is teasing a split between NFLer Tim Tebow and a former Miss USA over “lack of sex.”)

Chris Sacca, an early Twitter investor and perpetual company gadfly, welcomed Bryant’s departure as the “entrepreneurial world’s gain.”

https://twitter.com/sacca/status/671126056133267456

In his farewell poem, Bryant did not indicate what, if any, entrepreneurial endeavors he will be undertaking. We know he was fond of the Apple Watch.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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