Ss&r: Preparing For Kobe's Ride Into The Sunset

My latest at Silver Screen and Roll:

Kobe Bryant has spent nearly two decades mesmerizing us with his tenacity, athleticism, and iron will. While he will always be known for his ability to score the basketball and win championships, it might be his knack for playing through pain that has been most impressive. Throughout his hall of fame career he has defied the limitations of the human body and pushed forward through injuries that would have stopped lesser players from lacing up their high tops.

Bryant has played through sprained ankles, tweaked knees, broken fingers, and nearly everything else imaginable without missing a beat. It was as though Kobe could will himself to find a way to get the job done, to adapt and overcome when it seemed to be impossible for him to step onto the court, and in doing so he brought five championships to the city of Los Angeles. He seemed nearly immortal, an incredible display of what sheer determination can allow a human being to accomplish.

But nothing lasts forever, and even Kobe Bryant could only cheat Father Time for so long.

During the 2012-2013 season expectations were high for the Los Angeles Lakers, who had managed to acquire point guard extraordinaireSteve Nash and the childish but talented Dwight Howard to play alongside Bryant and Pau Gasol. The team surprisingly sputtered out of the gate and never found their rhythm. Nash was lost for most of the season due to injury, Howard hadn't yet fully recovered from back surgery, and Gasol dealt with a variety of afflictions.

The one constant that season was Kobe. When the chips were down he found ways to win, even if it meant putting the team (and a disinterested Howard) on his back and dragging them to the playoffs. Just as he had done so many times before, when the Lakers needed him most Kobe was there to answer the call.

This time around though the ending was different. There was no parade down Figueroa or MVP trophy to hoist. Coach Mike D'Antoni had played his star shooting guard an obscene amount of minutes, and with two games left in the season the debt had finally come due on a lifetime of cheating the injury bug. In one nightmarish moment, Kobe Bryant's Achilles tendon tore and Lakers fans fell silent.

In a poetic twist, the Achilles injury robbed Kobe of his immortality, just as it did for the famed Greek warrior. Bryant has become increasingly fragile and the immense athletic talent he was blessed with has disappeared at an alarming rate.

The 2013-2014 season saw Bryant play in just six games before succumbing to another injury, this time a tibial plateau fracture in his knee. It was the fewest number of games he has played in his career by far, and disaster struck so quickly after he recovered from his Achilles injury that Kobe was barely a part of that season's Lakers team.

Last season he managed to play in 35 games before again bowing out early, this time due to a torn rotator cuff. To make matters worse, Kobe was tremendously inefficient in the games he did suit up for. Surrounded by a Lakers team made up of cast-offs and journeymen, he was frequently put in the familiar position of being the team's first option on offense, but this time was unable to pull his struggling team to victory. While 35 games is a small sample size, it is safe to say that Kobe Bryant is no longer the player he once was.

At 36 years old and without the lift in his legs to elevate or explode like he used to, Kobe found himself forcing too many fall-away jumpers, which resulted in him posting the worst field goal percentage of his career: a brutal 37 percent. Likewise, his PER plummeted to 17.6, the worst since his rookie year (not counting his 6-game 2013-2014 season). Opposing teams focused their defensive efforts on him, knowing that leaving Wesley Johnson or Jeremy Linopen wouldn't hurt them. The vulture-like fan bases of opposing teams have circled, and they have celebrated the demise of their former conqueror.

However, it's not all doom and gloom for Kobe and the Lakers, and any assumptions that either are dead and buried are premature at best. Both Bryant and the organization are intent on proving their doubters wrong next year, which will offer a final shot at redemption. While the 2014-2015 season may have proved that he no longer has the athletic ability to be a first option on offense, the Black Mamba still showed that he can be a very dangerous basketball player. After all, Kobe did pass Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list this past season, something that is no easy feat.

Take a look at Kobe's stats over the past few seasons per 36-minutes courtesy of basketballreference.com (with the 6-game 13/14 season thrown out):

Read the rest HERE

Next up I'm doing a season review on Jordan Hill, and of course a site-wide mock draft.

 

That was a great read Trev, thank you.

I really hope you are right on Kobe transforming his game for the finale of his career. I would love to see more of his playmaking version, helping the young players develop their game, trusting them more and just being a mentor out there without being overused on offense all the time.

 

Great read once more, was wondering what your next piece was going to be about.

 

Thanks, yeah now that the season is over we are focusing on player reviews. I'm going to do another piece soon on Jordan Hill and am also participating in weekly roundtable articles. We will have a mock draft posted soon as well, and of course will have plenty of analysis once we find out if the Lakers kept their pick or not.

 

18pts 7ast 5reb would be an epic end to his career IMO. Im not one of these guys that lets sports affect my day, its just a game.....BUT seeing kobe play his
last season is gonna bum me out for sure. I was in middle school when I first saw kobe miss those 3's against utah in the playoffs. I loved that he wasn't scared.
Im now 32 years old and admire what hes done on a day to day basis in this awesome game. Im not an athlete and my body hurts in the morning hahahaha