Kobe Bryant on return: My form was ‘horse s—‘ (Video)

Kobe Bryant is a perfectionist. The 35-year-old made his season debut with the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night, and you might assume he would go easy on himself after having to work so hard to recover from an Achilles injury. Instead, Kobe was his typically honest self with reporters during his first postgame press conference of the year.

Bryant finished the game with nine points and eight rebounds in 28 minutes. He was just 2-for-9 from the floor and obviously was plenty rusty. However, he was most upset with himself for turning the ball over eight times.

“I failed miserably at that,” Koobe said, via Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com. “That was really the biggest thing for me, just trying to take care of the basketball, because I know I’m going to be in charge of making some decisions out there. … Basketballwise, I’m not happy.

“My rhythm is completely out of sync in terms of being able to read passing lanes and judge the timing of players in between those lanes and so forth. But I guess it’s a start. I guess a start is good.”

At one point, Kobe was asked if he feels he has been reborn in a new form now that he has overcome the injury.

“Well, right now my form is a horse sh– form,” Kobe joked, much to the delight of the reporters in the room.

Classic Kobe. Bryant is not going to be impressed with himself if he’s simply able to contribute after recovering from a devastating injury. He needs to play at a high level in order to be satisfied. He also needs to play at a high level in order for the Lakers to succeed. We fully expect him to get better as the season progresses.