Kobe Bryant has missed the last two games with a sore right shoulder. Now Lakers head coach Byron Scott thinks it’s an ailment that could plague the five-time NBA champion for the remainder of the season.
Scott was asked about Bryant’s injury after the Lakers’ 97-77 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night. “That’s wear and tear and 20 years of life in the NBA,” Scott said per Mark Medina of the LA Daily News. “I don’t know how much. But that’s probably something he’ll have to manage for the rest of the season.
“We were talking and he said it was hurting, but it wasn’t that bad,” Scott continued in reference to Bryant’s most recent appearance for the team, a 112-104 victory at Boston on Wednesday. “He said, ‘Coach, I can do other things.’ I said, ‘I know.’ Then he hits two big shots. I don’t know. He finds a way when the game is on the line to get some things done. I hope it’s not to that extent when he was hurting.”
Bryant, 37, is in the midst of his bizarro farewell tour, having announced his intent to retire upon the conclusion of the 2015-16 NBA season, his 20th in the league.
The injury is particularly worrisome as it is to the same shoulder that Bryant suffered a torn rotator cuff in last January, prematurely ending his 2014-15 season after just 35 games.
The Black Mamba obviously has the heart and the drive to play out his swan song season before riding off into the sunset. But whether or not his body allows him to do so (especially given quotes from Bryant like these) is an entirely different story altogether.
H/T Rotoworld
