Written by Joe Messineo at Bloguin
Kobe Bryant is one of our all-time favorite basketball players. He broke into the league when he was just 18 years old, and he was fantastic right away. The man has lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy five times as a NBA champion, and he was the Finals MVP in two of those campaigns. Along with those accomplishments, his trophy case is stuffed with a 2008 MVP award, an insane 11 All-NBA First Team selections, 17 All-Star Game selections, and four All-Star Game MVP awards. Every minute he keeps playing should be a treasure.
And yet, somehow, it doesn’t feel that way. Watching Kobe play this year just hasn’t been that much fun. And maybe it’s because – to quote the man himself – he “sucks.”
The Ugly Truth
Okay, so Kobe thinks he sucks. Maybe he’s exaggerating, though! He’s frustrated, sure, but can things really be that bad?
Well, actually, they are. Kobe Bryant’s 2015 stats paint a grisly picture of a player who is well past his prime. Kobe Bryant’s field goal percentage is .323 this year; his career average is .451 and his best-ever mark for a season was .469. As for 3-pointers, Kobe’s percentage is sitting at .206 (yikes), which compares pretty unfavorably to his .333 career average. Kobe is averaging 15.8 points per game, about ten points fewer than he’s averaged over his entire career and nearly 20 points lower than his high-water mark of 35.4 points per game in ’05-’06. Those figures are absolutely brutal.
Oh, and Kobe’s Los Angeles Lakers? They look almost as terrible as he does. As of this writing, the Lakers are 0-4 and dead last in the Western Conference. It might have something to do with the fact that their team’s most iconic player is dead weight right now, but refuses to retire.
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