The great Kobe Bryant has fallen.The Los Angeles Lakers star injured his right Achilles late in the fourth quarter in a much-needed victory against the Golden State Warriors. His career maybe in jeopardy after suffering the injury.
Shame on Jim Buss for not hiring Phil Jackson. If he were the coach, the Lakers would have been a No. 3 or 4 seed at worst. If he were the coach, he would be resting his stars and would have limited Bryant's minutes down the stretch.
Shame on Mike D'Antoni for running this old Lakers team in to the ground. D'Antoni's up-and-down system expended many players this year causing a multitude of injuries. We will never know if fatigue caused Bryant's injury, but it is hard to ignore this aging superstar was playing in his 17th season and was clearly at risk for a career-ending injury.
Shame on the Lakers players for not giving it their all. Dwight Howard should have made more of an impact on the offensive end. Howard should be a 25-10 player for this team. He was supposed to be the centerpiece of this franchise and the player who took the torch from Bryant.
Howard tries his best to emulate Shaquille O'Neal off the court and claim his superman identity, but on the court Howard comes up prohibitively short. Shaq averaged 27 points and 12 rebounds a game as a Laker while Howard is currently averaging 16.9 points a game and only 18 for his career.
Some of the blame falls directly on majority owner, Jim Buss. The remainder of the blame goes with the Lakers and D'Antoni.
Many NBA players reacted to the devastating news. Even Matt Barnes feels the same way I did:
https://twitter.com/Matt_Barnes22/statuses/322946216906330112
Bryant playing 48 minutes the game before and having 47 points against the Portland Trail Blazers may be the last best performance we will see.
Kobe, a highly respected player, is one of the best competitors we will ever witness. His assassin-type mentality, with iced blood in his veins, has provided us with so many spectacular plays and gut-wrenching championship performances. Kobe Bryant is the greatest player we have seen since Michael Jordan.
This was a truly sad night, because Bryant may be the last greatest player linked to the Jordan era, which preceded all the other all-time great players like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Jerry West and on down the line.
Lets hope his career does not end tonight and Bryant returns to the Lakers next season and has a speedy recovery. However, if tonight's game happens to be Kobe's last, I thank him for his dedication to the game of basketball, loyalty to his fans by playing every game like it is his last and all of the hard-work he has exhibited over his illustrious 17-year career.
