This isn't how Kobe Bryant envisioned the end

Not surprisingly, Kobe Bryant is doing well with his rehabilitation and recovery from recent ACL surgery.

Dude is determined. I don't think i would want to play video games against him.

Anyway, recent reports of of Los Angeles are saying that he may be ready for as action as soon as the preseason.

This is great news for Laker fans and a testament to Kobe's toughness, but I find myself asking, what's the rush?

The Lakers, by all accounts, aren't going to be very good next season, and coming back too early could jeopardize what is left of Bryant's NBA days.

This can't be how he envisioned the end.


After such an illustrious career, Kobe couldn't have imagined that the twilight of his career would be spent battling back from a serious injury to play for a Laker team that might not even make the playoffs.

Kobe has long entertained and embraced the Jordan comparison, in many ways molding his own career arc after MJ's.

Jordan went out on top, not counting those Washington Wizard years which shouldn't probably be erased from modern basketball memory.

Really though, Jordan left the game in 1998 at the pinnacle. The Bulls had won three straight championships, which probably could have turned into four or five if the team was kept in tact, and he was the undisputed best player in the world.

You have to think that Kobe envisioned his career ending in manner more similar to this then the present prospects.

It has to be assumed that this is one of the main reasons that Kobe wanted Dwight to stay in L.A. so badly. It was almost odd to see Kobe campaign to keep a dude that by all accounts he didn’t particularly like as a person, or a player. 

But, Bryant has learned that winning in this league isn’t done alone, and having Howard around would have made his ride into the sunset at least somewhat smoother. With Howard, Gasol, and a healthy Bryant the Lakers are at least contenders. 

With the Lakers lineup as it is currently constructed however, Bryant will have to spend one of his final seasons, fresh off of an injury, fighting for mere playoff positioning.

For a man that has been compared to Jordan in almost every aspect the game, that is probably not the way he envisioned the end.