Twisted Takes: Should Kobe Bryant play out the season or walk away now?
Kobe Bryant's basketball career will go down as one of the greatest of all time, but his final NBA season has been plagued by less than flattering moments. Ever since he announced his intention to retire, the question on everyone's mind has been the same:
Should Kobe Bryant play out the season, or walk away now?
Gino Bottero: The name Kobe Bryant still carries weight around the league. He's not filling the stat sheet like he once did, but he is helping fill arenas, and he's done enough for the league to deserve a goodbye tour.
Joe Wolfond: Except Kobe's said repeatedly that he doesn't want a goodbye tour. If he's serious, he might as well call it quits tomorrow. Who really needs to watch him shoot 7-of-26 65 more times?
Bottero: What Kobe needs more than anything else is a head coach that will stop acting like his buddy and start treating him like a player that needs to be coached. Limit his usage. Limit his minutes. The result will be a more effective player.
Wolfond: For one thing, I tend to doubt that Kobe's going to be super receptive to "being coached" at this point. For another, his being a *more* effective player still wouldn't make him anything close to an actually effective player, or make his swan song on this appalling Lakers team any less depressing.
Bottero: Kobe's earned the right to write his own ticket in L.A. This Lakers team never had a chance at sniffing the playoffs. If Kobe wants to jack up an air ball from 10 feet beyond the arc, let him. The man's got five rings.
Wolfond: This isn't just about him. The Lakers have a stable of young players who need time and space to develop. Jordan Clarkson looks like he wants to murder Kobe every time one of those 30-foot air balls goes up. Kobe has five rings? Robert Horry has seven. I don't remember anyone giving him a licence to hijack a team, chuck 17 threes a game, and throw his teammates under the bus just so he could retire on his own terms.
Bottero: The idea that Kobe's blocking young players, again, falls on the head coach. Limit his minutes and keep him around to mentor rising talents like Clarkson and D'Angelo Russell. You can't buy the kind of experience and basketball knowledge Kobe brings to the team.
Wolfond: Then add him to the coaching staff. Give him some fancy title like "executive director of player development." Just get him off the floor. If this season has made anything clear, it's that, declining ability or not, you can't take the Kobe out of Kobe.
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