Heading into his 20th and final NBA season, we weren’t sure how often Kobe Bryant was going to be on the basketball court, let alone dropping game-sealing, dagger 3-pointers like he did against the Pelicans on Thursday evening in New Orleans.
The future Hall of Famer played just six games in 2013-14 after tearing his Achilles at the end of the previous season due in part to a knee injury, then managed only 35 games in 2014-15 after tearing his rotator cuff.
This season, he’s played in all but 10 of L.A.’s 52 games.
With 56,635 combined regular season and playoff minutes to his name, Bryant ranks behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (66,297) and Karl Malone (63,493) for sheer time spent on the hardwood. Of the players in the top 10, Kobe’s the only wing player — the position that likely leads to the most cutting and running on both ends of the court. In other words, what he’s doing is unprecedented.
In 29 minutes per game, Kobe is averaging 16.7 points, 5.3 boards and 4.7 assists with 1.5 steals, even while struggling with his shooting at 35.5 percent and 27.6 percent from 3. His defense is, of course, nowhere near the level that made him a 12-time member of the All-NBA Defensive First Team (2000, 2003-04, 2006-11) or Second Team (2001, 2002, 2012), even if he’ll still accept and do well with the occasional 1-on-1 challenge.
Bryant has had to attempt far more 3-pointers per game than at any previous time in his career, as his legs just cannot allow the constant drives to the rim and resulting finishes or, at least, trips to the foul line that were such hallmarks of his earlier career.
How many more of these moments does Bryant have in him? Only 30 games remain on the schedule, with his final contest at San Antonio coming on Saturday.
“He got a good rest today, and hopefully he’ll be ready to go tomorrow,” said Byron Scott at Friday’s practice. “I feel good that he’s going to play tomorrow. I didn’t see anything last night (to) indicate anything different. I expect him to play.”
Despite battling Achilles and shoulder issues this season, Bryant has been feeling pretty good – all things considered – of late, and is confident he can keep his current pace through April.
“He’s finally got his legs back,” said Scott. “Conditioning was never an issue … it was just a matter of time until he started getting his legs back up under him. When you play 20 years in this league, sometimes it takes a while to get them back, and obviously right now, the last couple of weeks he seems to have everything up under him again.”
