Losers of their first four games, the Los Angeles Lakers are off to the worst start in the history of the franchise since the team arrived in Los Angeles, but Kobe Bryant is not wavering on his commitment to the the Lakers.
"I've enjoyed a great amount of success here. You can't just enjoy the successful times and then run away from the bad ones," Bryant told Yahoo! Sports NBA columnist Marc Spears. "No, I don't even think about [departing]. I'm a Laker."
When analyzing the Lakers' first four losses, at least two of those defeats could be placed on NBA schedule-makers giving the purple and gold four games in five days, including two home and away back-to-backs.
The losses to the Phoenix Suns and to the Golden State Warriors were expected because both teams like to run, and the Lakers faced them on their respective home openers and on the second nights of back-to-backs.
In their home opener against the Houston Rockets, the Lakers laid an egg. They started flat and the uncomfortable lineup variances caused by training camp injuries did not help the Lakers' cause. The easy explanation is that Houston is a better team than the Lakers, and Dwight Howard and the Rockets beat a lesser team.
The loss against the Clippers hurt deepest. The Lakers had the opportunity to claim a meaningful home victory, but Bryant stumbled at the end of the game and finished the fourth quarter having made only one of his last seven shots. In a close game, Bryant showed a bit of rust down the stretch, and that stumble allowed critics to raise their voices and write off the 36-year-old star.
In the following game, however, Bryant displayed his uncanny ability to hit improbable shots and catch fire. A couple of his shots during a 19-point third quarter, however, were ridiculous by any measure, i.e. 35-foot three-point attempts.
The Lakers' road back to the top is not going to be smooth sailing. At the moment, it feels like the Lakers are going down a steep incline with a rusty set of brakes that don't seem to be working.
"We can't get discouraged by it," Bryant said. "It's a very long season. You just have to stay the course. Keep on looking to improve, keep on looking to get better and things will eventually break.
"Lakers fans know it's a process. Things can turn pretty quickly. We've seen it there before. If there is anything we're relying on, we're relying on our history, what we've been able to accomplish and how quickly we are able to turn things around."
Fans may not be happy with the state of the team or the product on the floor, but having Bryant committed and standing by the team makes the process easier and somewhat bearable.
