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Los Angeles Lakers: This Summer Can’t Be About Kobe Bryant

By Jackson Sanders

Dec 2, 2014; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) during the game against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 2, 2014; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) during the game against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mar 10, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) on the bench the second half of the game against the Detroit Pistons at Staples Center. Lakers won 93-85. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 10, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) on the bench the second half of the game against the Detroit Pistons at Staples Center. Lakers won 93-85. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /

Will Kobe Bryant Be Available?

For the majority of his career, Kobe Bryant has been a player willing to fight through pain to be on the court. He’s played through plenty of injuries — many of them that would have players sitting weeks at a time in today’s NBA — and he’s had his fair share of appearances on the medical report.

You can add a torn right rotator cuff to that list of ailments. The injury cost Kobe Bryant a good portion of 2014-15  — 39 games after undergoing season-ending surgery — and set back his offseason by sidelining him until October.

Unfortunately, ending his season in this fashion has become a familiar agony for Kobe. Here’s a recap of how Bryant has ended his last three campaigns:

Jan 21, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) against the New Orleans Pelicans during a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Lakers 96-80. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 21, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) against the New Orleans Pelicans during a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Lakers 96-80. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /
  • 2012-13 Season: Torn Achilles out for the final 2 regular season games + playoffs.
  • 2013-14 Season: Fractured knee, out for final 57 regular season games.
  • 2014-15 Season: Torn rotator cuff, out for final 39 regular season games.

We saw glimpses of Kobe’s mortality when he began to do everything but buy a second-home in Germany in order to keep his bum knee humming along. That mortality has since been confirmed through the unfortunate physical circumstances he’s had to endure over the last few years.

It hasn’t helped that Mike D’Antoni and Byron Scott — Kobe Bryant’s last two head coaches — have pushed his aging body harder than they should have. Scott retrospectively realized it may not have been a great decision, but the damage had been done.

The most disturbing thing about Kobe Bryant’s health is that he has seemingly been perpetually injured. He went from the Achilles tear to the fractured knee to a shoulder injury — one that he apparently had for “a long time” — with very little healthy basketball in between, if any.

The focus probably shouldn’t be on whether potential additions to the Lakers want to come play with Kobe, but rather if they will play with the Laker legend for a meaningful portion of a season at all.

Regardless of one’s opinion on if Bryant can still play well in the wake of this barrage of injuries, it’s worth considering if he even can play for more than a handful of games given that his body has clearly betrayed him.

It doesn’t take a sportswriter, a team fanatic, or a seven-figure-a-year game analyst to conclude that a basketball player with the recent injury history of Kobe Bryant may have trouble playing the sport at age 37. Those invested in the league know that Kobe’s return to health is a cloudy, unreliable possibility.

Any player the Lakers try to recruit in free agency won’t be making a decision because they expect to play with Kobe Bryant for an extended period of time next season, and the Lakers shouldn’t anticipate him playing a major role on the 2015-16 edition of the team.

Focusing the building effort with an eye towards the future eliminates the need to completely readjust if Kobe goes down, and will allow the team to strongly continue forth when he needs to sit a few games out here and there.

Next: Who Will Kobe Bryant Be?

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