After an entertaining All-Star Weekend in New York, NBA games aren’t coming back until Thursday. This is the first year the NBA has extended the All-Star break to allow the players who participated in the festivities some real time to relax and recover.
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The Lakers are off until Friday, they will be hosting the Brooklyn Nets at the Staples Center. In the mean time, Laker fans got treated to “Kobe: The Interview” on NBA TV, which was aired on prime time on Monday night. We had not heard much from Kobe since his shoulder injury and Ahmad Rashad did a fantastic job of interviewing the five time NBA champion about his past, present and future.
During the interview he was asked about the idea of retirement and if his latest injury has changed anything about coming back next season. According to ESPN, Bryant still feels he has some time left, especially after seeing the Spurs win the title last season:
"“I can’t say it is the end,” Bryant said during the interview, which aired Monday night. “I thought the Spurs were done 20 years ago. Those guys are still winning.“So, to answer the question, I can’t say this is the end of my era because I thought their [era] was done, and they’re still there. So I’m hoping I can have the same rebirth.”"
Tim Duncan earned his fifth championship at age 38, which is why Kobe was inspired to see them go back-to-back finals where they should have won two titles, but because of Ray Allen they only came away with one. Unfortunately, Duncan is in a much better situation at this point in their careers. Duncan is part of a system that helps his flourish and he has a head coach that limits his minutes to conserve his body for the post-season.
Kobe is hoping to have one last run to an NBA title, but this current Lakers squad is quite frankly a joke in comparison to the Spurs. The Lakers need a lot of help and if they want to send Kobe out the right way. They need to put together a competitive team around him next season and hope he still has some magic in those old legs. It’s highly unlikely Kobe can stay healthy and lead another team to a Larry O’Brien Trophy, but it’s worth a shot.