Kobe Bryant Injury Update: Twitter Reacts as Star Has Season-Ending Surgery
After missing nearly the entire 2013-14 season, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant's 2014-15 campaign has been cut short as well. The Lakers announced Bryant would miss approximately nine months after undergoing surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff Wednesday.
“I expect Kobe to make a full recovery and if all goes as expected, he should be ready for the start of the season,” Dr. Neal ElAttrache said in a team statement.
With the future Hall of Famer aging and struggling to stay healthy, many are questioning what's next for "The Black Mamba". Bryant is 36 years old and he is coming off a season that saw him play in only six games due to Achilles and knee injuries. With a torn rotator cuff knocking him out this time around, it's fair to wonder if the end of his career is near.
ESPN's Skip Bayless believes the 17-time All-Star is quickly approaching the conclusion of his illustrious career:
One person who disagrees, though, is Lakers head coach Byron Scott. Per Bill Oram of the Orange County Register, Scott doesn't believe that a competitor of Kobe's ilk will walk away on such a sour note:
There are never guarantees when someone suffers a season-ending injury, but ESPN's Dr. Robert Klapper points out that there are some similarities between the torn rotator cuff Bryant is dealing with and the torn Achilles that forced him to miss the start of last season:
Kobe wasn't necessarily the same player this season that fans had grown accustomed to seeing over the years, but he was still productive. With over 22 points and nearly six rebounds and six assists per contest, Bryant put up numbers good enough to earn an All-Star nod.
That means there is reason to believe that Kobe can still come back strong and be a great player at the NBA level next season, and possibly even beyond that.
At the same time, a deeper dive into his 2014-15 statistics suggest that Bryant was more of a hindrance than a help to the 12-34 Lakers.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, L.A. has been far less efficient with Kobe on the court than it has been without him this season:
The sample size without Bryant is much smaller than the one with him since he was averaging nearly 35 minutes per game, but the fact that he was shooting a career-worst 37 percent from the floor wasn't helping matters.
Also, Kobe contributed less win shares than any player in the NBA with at least 1,200 minutes played, per ESPN Stats & Info:
As for Bryant's future, his minutes have become an increasing topic of conversation. Scott has told reporters on multiple occasions that he regrets pushing his aging star so hard early in the season. Bryant averaged 37.1 minutes per game in November and was still at 34.5 per contest at the time of his injury—by far the highest number on the team.
Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News reported Scott expects that to be cut drastically in 2015-16:
Randy Wittman, whose Washington Wizards were in Los Angeles on Tuesday, offered praise for Bryant to Medina:
As for what comes next, that likely depends on how the Lakers fare in free agency this summer. For the second straight summer, they'll have maximum cap room they hope to spend on a superstar. For the second straight summer, the front office will have nothing but a legacy of purple and gold banners to sell. Bryant's constant injury woes, his obviously declining skill set and his need to have the ball in his hands makes it a tough sell.
Scott told Serena Winters of Lakers Nation he expects Kobe to nonetheless help in free-agent pitches:
Jason Patt of SB Nation wondered if Bryant's pitch could even help at this point:
Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times believes Bryant should retire rather than continue trying to play, but understands why he won't:
Jeter might be the best comparison for Bryant. Like Kobe, Jeter's penultimate season was an injury-riddled mess. Like Kobe, Jeter had become so synonymous with the New York Yankees that they had no choice but to allow him to ride it out on his terms—even if it meant setting the franchise back.
And, given the state of the Lakers, it's likely Bryant will go out like Jeter as well: Without one final shot at postseason glory.
