Ten games into the 2015-16 NBA Season, the Los Angeles Lakers are 2-8, and Kobe Bryant has missed two games. If the Lakers continue on this path, they would project to win between 16 and 17 games with Bryant playing roughly 65 games for the season.
Likely, the Lakers will improve given the nature of their young squad, so 17 wins may be a low target. Just as conceivably, it could be dead on the mark. The Lakers are improving, but this team will likely take time to get truly going. Agree or disagree with Lakers coach Byron Scott on how he's handling no. 2 pick D'Angelo Russell, the kid has not exactly looked ready to play at a high level when called upon. Russell will get time to mature, and that's a season-long process—considerably longer than that, to be honest.
At this point in the season, Bryant potentially playing 65 games sounds like a best-case-scenario. Scott decided to work his hero horse through the finish line of Sunday's game with the promise of time off coming. After 36 minutes on Sunday, the 37-year-old went home, while the other Lakers traveled to Phoenix for a Monday night back-to-back game in the valley of the sun. Bryant has two days to recover before coming in to practice on Wednesday and Thursday and playing a game on Friday.
On Friday, the Toronto Raptors return to face, one more time, the player that scored 81 points against them at the site where he accomplished the feat. Every game of the season serves as a window into a memory of Bryant's behemoth of an NBA career. The Lakers even have a "TDIKH" hash tag to commemorate "This Day in Kobe History" on their official Instagram account.
Social media is not the only department celebrating Bryant's tenure with special gusto befitting a formal farewell. Since the start of training camp, the Lakers have been honoring their 20-year star. The team went back to Hawaii, where Bryant spent his first training camp, and the talk of "coming full circle" was as ubiquitous as talk of Scott's harsh conditioning drills. Scott, of course, spent camp with Bryant back in 1996 and again in 2015.
The Lakers are not going at this unofficial farewell halfway. Bryant's image appears on every single season ticket, with a different image for every ticket, of course. Also, every season-long media credential features Bryant as no. 8 rising above the rim, and the Lakers' 2015-16 Media Guide is a collection of 20 pictures featuring Bryant through the years.
Is this Bryant's final year? If anyone asks him, yes it is. However, he makes sure to add "but you never know" because he does not want a farewell tour. He wants to go out being treated as an enemy on the road that gets each team's best shot. And he's getting it, too. Judging by the Lakers' record, the NBA is not going easy on the purple and gold just because this is more than likely Bryant's final go-around.
The 2015-16 season is officially the "Kobe Bryant Unofficial Farewell Tour".
Actions speak louder than words, and the no.13 pick in the 1996 NBA draft is not acting like this season is just any other year. On the first major trip of the 2015-16 season, Bryant verbally confirmed that his likely final outing at Madison Square Garden felt different. Bryant spoke about his history with 61 points at MSG and then made his likely final pilgrimage to the Mecca. There, Bryant heard a chorus of MVP chants. He appreciated the love, met the cameras and questions with gracious smiles and the Kobe Bryant Unofficial Farewell Tour gained momentum.
Sports
Get today's sports news out of Los Angeles. Here's the latest on the Dodgers, Lakers, Angels, Kings, Galaxy, LAFC, USC, UCLA and more LA teams.
In Florida, Bryant missed two games with a bad back, but he took the time to walk back from the arena to the team hotel crowded by adoring fans, according to Lakers radio announcer Mychal Thompson. On his show on ESPN Radio in Los Angeles, Thompson said he had never seen Bryant do that before, and he recounted how fans chanted "Kobe" and how police stepped in to allow the growing crowd to cross the street safely as they escorted Bryant for six blocks.
In Dallas, the Mavericks lined up and greeted Bryant at midcourt after the game, and Dallas owner Mark Cuban finished the farewell line. Everywhere he goes, Bryant gets a respectful farewell.
After Sunday's victory, Bryant's complained about the tough walk back to his car. Yes, this back issue is a new phenomenon for a basketball star that has experienced just about every injury imaginable. Perhaps more accurately, this back issue is an old phenomenon, as it is likely tied to old age. Bryant nervously smiled as he seemingly made that connection while describing the struggle to get out of bed to reporters in Miami.
Don't get it twisted, though. When no. 24 is on the court, he can still play. Admittedly, he needed a bit of time to figure out what he can and cannot do in this surgically repaired, naturally deteriorating 37-year-old body.
On Sunday night, Bryant came within one assist and two rebounds of a triple-double. His understanding of the game has slowly welcomed the adjustments and alterations required to remain relevant.
Now, Bryant's best skills are facilitating and reading the game, which is exactly how he fit in last season before tearing his rotator cuff. In the last complete game Bryant played during the 2014-15 season, he finished with 19 points and 17 assists.
At 37, Bryant is not a shooter anymore.
Even in games when he shoots twice as often as any other starter in the first quarter, Bryant rarely ends with greater than 20 field goal attempts. In fact, Bryant has only attempted over 20 field goals in one game thus far: the season opener against Minnesota and 13 of those 24 attempts came from behind the three-point line.
Bryant realizing that he could not shoot his way through a basketball game took him 27 games and a mental and physical breakdown in Sacramento in 2014-15. After that, Bryant averaged 14.7 points, 9.3 assists and 7.0 rebounds over the final seven full games he played before leaving the game in New Orleans and opting to go under the knife.
In Sunday's win at Staples Center, which was the Lakers' 10th game of the season, Bryant scored 17 points, passed off nine assists and pulled down eight rebounds, which seemed fully in line with the numbers he averaged once he figured out how he could be effective a season ago.
So, how long can he stay healthy this time around?
