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Los Angeles Lakers: A Guide To Enjoying The End Of Kobe Bryant’s Career

By Gerald Bourguet

Nov 3, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) reacts during 120-109 loss against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 3, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) reacts during 120-109 loss against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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Los Angeles Lakers
Nov 3, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) reacts during 120-109 loss against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

The Los Angeles Lakers are off to an 0-4 start and have the worst defense in the league. They’re coming off a 21-win season and are far removed from their championship glory, even if it was only five and a half years ago when they won their last title. The Lakers have fallen from grace, and the fall has been well-documented to this point.

It’s only fitting that the regression of one of the league’s greatest franchises has mirrored that of one of its greatest players, Kobe Bryant.

Four seasons ago, a Lakers core featuring Kobe, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard was supposed to take the NBA by storm as overwhelming title favorites. Instead, injuries and a lack of chemistry derailed the team’s season, culminating in an Achilles tear for Bryant just two games before the playoffs began.

Since that career-altering injury in 2013, Bryant has played in a grand total of 45 games over the next three seasons, averaging 20.6 points per game in that span. That might not sound too terrible for a guy in his late 30s, but then you realize those points have come on 37.4 percent shooting from the field and 27.4 percent shooting from three-point range.

Kobe’s been healthy so far in 2015-16, but his devotion to recapturing his former excellence is actively killing the Lakers’ rebuilding effort. With Kobe gunning away with less accountability than ever before, mocking tribute videos like this NBA Jam spoof have become running joke in the NBA community.

Soak that in, Lakers fans. Take in all 38 painful seconds. You can cry foul about the audacity it takes to question one of the game’s all-time greats, but I dare you to watch five minutes of this year’s Lakers team and say that it’s off base.

This isn’t how Kobe Bryant’s career is supposed to end. Even as someone who has followed the Phoenix Suns for most of my adult life, I couldn’t agree more: this is painful.

Given what we know about the Black Mamba, you can be guaranteed he’s not going anywhere and he’s not going to back down. But as the end approaches, how can anyone possibly derive joy from the painful nightly experience of watching Kobe fight reality and his aging body?

In the interest of making this all a little more bearable, we’re going to take a look at the five biggest keys to enjoying the end of Kobe Bryant’s Hall of Fame career. Some are strategies for the fans, some are directed at the Lakers organization and some involve things that Kobe will have to take upon himself.

But in the end, there’s got to be a way to not only endure these twilight years, but enjoy them. Logic be damned, we’re going to go find them.

Next: No. 5

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