Los Angeles Lakers: A response to Kobe Bryant’s recent comments
By Jason Elbaum
1. It takes a few years for NBA teams to develop chemistry together, especially when key players are young
Kobe was critical and candid when he decided to call out some of the Lakers’ young players in this particular interview. He urged Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Julius Randle to show some impatience throughout this growing process and take the team to the next level.
It’s surprising that Kobe does not sympathize more with the young Lakers, as he had his own struggles throughout his first few seasons in the league. He was not a consistent member of the starting lineup for Los Angeles until his third season with the team.
Kobe’s first Lakers team had already spent two years under Del Harris and had some veteran pieces in place that knew how to play as a team at the NBA level. This year’s team has almost no experience playing with each other and is coached by someone still trying to find his own identity as an NBA coach.
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The main thing to take away here is that Kobe Bryant and Laker fans around the world need to keep things in perspective when it comes to criticizing this team. This especially applies if you are comparing them to past Laker teams, as the franchise has been blessed with such consistent levels of talent that this rebuilding period is truly unprecedented.