Blinded By the Kobe Bryant Light

Oct 16, 2014; Anaheim, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) and coach Byron Scott during the game against the Utah Jazz at the Honda Center. The Jazz defeated the Lakers 119-86. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Last night, Lakers coach Byron Scott admitted he played Kobe Bryant too many minutes.

It is impossible to have light without having an illusion. It is the science of light for the eye to sometimes be distorted. Too much light changes how we think of darkness.

In this, Kobe Bryant is the master. His illusion has been his reality. He has been in the public eye for so long, the narrative that he is immortal has stuck to him like glue. He has perfected the ability to make people think he can overcome what is physically impossible. It is all part of Kobe’s brilliance and his two careers: the great career and the courageous one.

In the aftermath of this latest Kobe Bryant setback, Byron Scott is questioning himself for his decision to play Kobe so many minutes, admitting he was blinded by the illusion. Kobe’s legendary will to overcome everything because he is more robotic than he is human is a persistent chapter in his legacy. The Kobe mythology that he can do the impossible still dominates his fable.

Byron isn’t alone in falling in love with the Kobe-can-do-the-unthinkable narrative. It happened to Mike D’antoni too. Of course Byron Scott and Mike D’antoni are rarely compared to each other in anything. But they have this on their resume: they both coached Kobe Bryant, the player and the myth, until the body of Kobe began to decay.

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Both Byron and D’antoni, incorrectly, thought the illusion was the truth. In both cases, the body of Kobe Bryant had the last word. Perhaps it wasn’t death, and perhaps it wasn’t torture, but it was the slow and aggressive decline whereas Kobe’s body just refused to cooperate. This was not the Kobe who played through back spasms and a broken nose and jacked up fingers and a bummed knee and swollen ankles. This was the middle aged basketball player Kobe.

2013– Coached by Mike D’antoni, it was one of Kobe Bryant’s greatest seasons. He matched or exceeded career highs in field goal percentage (2 point shots), assists and efficiency. Beginning in the middle of March, he would push himself, with little to no interference by Mike D’antoni. This meant playing virtually every minute of every game. Against Sacramento, Kobe played 47 minutes. The next game, against Dallas, Kobe played 47 minutes. The Lakers won by 20. Kobe played the entire 4^th grade, save the last 56 seconds.

Dec 30, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) during the game against the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center. The Lakers won 111-103. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Two games later, in a double digit loss to the Clippers, Kobe played 47 minutes. He played the entire 4^th quarter except the last 39 seconds. The Lakers never were a threat. With three minutes left in the game they still trailed by 14 points.

Two games later, against Portland, he had one of his all-time epic games. Kobe played every minute and scored 47 points. He had 8 rebounds and shot 51%. He made a tough perimeter jumper to give the Lakers a 6 point lead with 4 minutes left. Damian Lillard was also having a monster game, (38 points, 9 assists), but he missed four out of his last 5 shots which basically delivered the game to the Lakers.

Kobe’s next game, against the Warriors, would have been another 47 minute game but he tore his Achilles. He had already played 44 minutes and his body had enough.

2014- Coached by Byron Scott, it was a career low season as far as efficiency was concerned. Kobe Bryant struggled to make shots and he continually looked fatigued with tired legs. His shots were short most of the time or were nowhere close to the rim. He lacked elevation. Still, Byron continued to play him long stretches of minutes because the alternative was Wayne Ellington.

Against Phoenix, he played 44 minutes. Two games later, against Memphis, he played 35 minutes. The next game, against the Pelicans, he played 36 minutes. The next game, he played 36 minutes against the Spurs. Three games later, he played 39 minutes against the Rockets.

It was a pattern that would continue until his body just gave up and quit, burdened by the excessive workload. Whereas he used to be able to push his body through its natural fatigue, Kobe’s body was now alerting him to stop. Stop.

It’s extraordinarily difficult to separate when it all went awry for Kobe’s body. Was it the dominant workload put upon him with D’antoni’s approval? Was it Byron Scott thinking he was something other than his biography: 19 years, 46,000 minutes, 25,000 shots?

At the end of the day, does it really matter who is responsible? Or, why it was that Kobe’s mangled body withered on the court with no one’s interference? The bottom line is, Kobe Bryant sacrificed himself- and his body parts-for Mike D’antoni and Byron Scott and for victories that were not going to lead to anything other than draft picks. Rewarded with attention simply by coaching him, neither Byron nor D’antoni knew how to look into Kobe’s brilliant light and make a coaching related decision. In that aspect, they consistently failed him.

Mike D’antoni didn’t have a choice on what to do next. The ripped Achilles, the surgery, the lost year, it was out of his hands.

But Byron Scott has a second chance.

Next: Byron Scott: Brute Honesty and the Case for Over Achieving