The Los Angeles Lakers received some good news heading into the matchup with the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night with news of Kobe Bryant starting to ramp up training once again.
According to Serena Winters, Kobe has begun aggressively running:
Kobe’s been training pretty hard this week & says he’d count it as part of those 3 wks of conditioning he said he’d need to return
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 2, 2013
With Kobe missing the season opener against the Los Angeles Clippers and sitting out the game against the Golden State Warriors the following night, the speculation has kicked into high gear once again in terms of a return date for the five-time NBA champion.
Before the season got underway, two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash believed a realistic return date for Bryant would be before Thanksgiving. Although Kobe returning sometime between now and the November holiday may be realistic, it still remains uncertain if it will happen.
Recently, Kobe created yet another media frenzy changing his Twitter avatar to “1225” shortly after being ranked the 25th best player in the NBA. Kobe claims, jokingly, that the avatar change was for his dog’s birthday. Many believe the change was due to ESPN predicting the Lakers finishing 12th in the Western Conference and Kobe being only ranked 25th among the best of the best in the league.
Another theory is that Kobe will return on Christmas Day in order to face the two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat and dropped a hint with the new Twitter avatar.
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