Kobe Bryant isn’t an old man (he is 32 years old) in the traditional sense, but in basketball years he would be collecting social security right now. Through in all the trials, tribulations, successes, failures and drama he has endured since he was in high school, he maybe the oldest 32 year old man on the planet.
Lakers fans don’t want to see, but I saw it years ago.
Same thing happened to Jordan toward the end. The physical started to break down while the mental aspects of his game started to rise to a level well above your average basketball player.
Same thing with Bryant, his physical peak with spent with Smush Parker and Kwame Brown, what you are seeing now is a Obi Wan Kenobi version.
Bryant entered the league in 1996, it is currently 2011. He has only missed the playoffs once and played in seven NBA Finals winning five.
That is a lot of mileage on a 32 year old body, so I am not surprised he is started to break down physically and why he is trying to keep the Lakers engaged mentally to get that six title he so desperately wants.
Kobe appeared to know exactly what was ailing his two-time defending team. Minutes after being manhandled by the Heat, he pronounced he was going to “kick [butt] at practice . . . and beat it into their heads. It was time to get the team focused.”
Which brings us to the crux of my inquiry. How did Kobe propose to pull that off, a Lakers’ legionnaire wondered, “when he hasn’t practiced the whole season (something no member of LA’s press has called him out on)?”
Is that true, I asked Kobe?
“Yeah.”
Why?
“Because I have very little cartilage under my right knee cap, it’s almost bone on bone.”
