Here's what $48mil can buy you these days...
December 19, 2013
Bryant and Lakers’ Plans Break Down
By BILLY WITZ
LOS ANGELES — When the Lakers awarded Kobe Bryant an eye-popping two-year, $48.5 million contract extension last month, it seemed like an inordinate amount of faith — and cap space — to place on their aging star, who at 35 had not yet come back from a torn left Achilles’ tendon.The idea was that Bryant could return to form — or recast himself as a latter-day Magic Johnson — and keep the Lakers relevant enough in the Western Conference until reinforcements arrived from this summer’s free-agent bonanza.
As it turns out, that plan is as fragile as Bryant’s body.
The Lakers announced Thursday that Bryant, six games into his comeback, would be out six weeks after fracturing the lateral tibial plateau in his left knee in Tuesday’s win at Memphis.
“That’s too bad,” Lakers Coach Mike D’Antoni said after practice. “You hate it for Kobe. He’s worked so hard to get back. But he’ll be back. He’ll be back in six weeks. We’ve got to weather the storm until he gets back.”
The Lakers, who are 12-13 and in 11th place in the Western Conference, have been a modest surprise, staying in contention mostly without Bryant and with a string of injuries at point guard. Steve Nash, Steve Blake and Jordan Farmar are out, with only Farmar due to return before February. Bryant had been filling that role, which will now be handed to Xavier Henry.
But if Bryant’s injury punctures the Lakers’ playoff hopes — he would miss 21 games if he returned in six weeks — it also pokes a hole in the story line of Bryant’s riding to his team’s rescue.
His return, less than two weeks ago, was treated here as a rapturous event, not just by fans and sports talk radio hosts, but by the Lakers and Bryant himself.
Bryant’s return was announced on Facebook with a video produced by the team. It featured his No. 24 jersey buffeted and torn apart by wind, rain, sun and snow, only to rematerialize whole again, bathed in white light. The screen went black until white letters appeared, saying, “the legend continues ... ”
The Utah Jazz spoofed the video when Marvin Williams, who had Achilles’ surgery in May, returned after missing several games.
As renowned as Bryant’s work ethic and determination may be, a study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that over a 23-year period, 39 percent of N.B.A. players who had ruptured Achilles’ tendons never returned to play, and those who did “showed a significant decrease in playing time and performance.”
Even before he tore his Achilles’ tendon late in the regular season last year, signs of wear and tear had shown on Bryant, who is in his 18th season and has played an additional 220 playoff games — nearly the equivalent of three additional seasons. He has traveled to Germany to have experimental blood treatments on his right knee. He endured torn ligaments in his wrist and a shin injury that sidelined him for two weeks late in the 2012 season.
The latest injury appeared innocuous at first. Bryant slipped as he was pivoting against Grizzlies guard Tony Allen in the post, then he winced as he lay on the ground rubbing his knee. Bryant remained in the game and finished with 21 points, including a game-sealing 3-pointer in a season-high 33 minutes.
After the extent of the injury became apparent Thursday, Bryant took to Twitter, leaving only the message #BrokenNotBeaten.
After missing training camp and more than a month of the regular season, Bryant had seemed to settle into his new role, reorienting himself to the pace of the game after a spate of early turnovers and poor shooting. He was cautious enough about his health that he would lay the ball in, even if uncontested, rather than dunk. Over the six games, Bryant averaged 13.8 points, 6.3 assists and 5.7 turnovers.
The victory over Memphis was the second consecutive game Bryant had sealed with a basket, the role he has long envisioned for himself in the waning days of his career. He joked that when he could no longer carry the Lakers to victories, he would become Mariano Rivera, closing them out.
Instead, Bryant’s injury problems strike a parallel with another Yankee, shortstop Derek Jeter, who fractured his ankle during the 2012 playoffs and then reinjured the ankle in spring training. Jeter spent most of the 2013 season on the disabled list with various leg injuries and described last season as a nightmare.
At the moment, Bryant’s season is shaping up that way, too.
