The Los Angeles Lakers are currently going through perhaps the worst season in franchise history. Nothing went right this season from losing Dwight Howard in free agency and Kobe Bryant going down with another major injury.
As if the Lakers heading toward a high pick in the upcoming 2014 NBA Draft wasn’t odd enough, the storied franchise will be without Kobe for the rest of the season.
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According to Sean Deveney of Sporting News, not only is Kobe done for the year, but he may also be done playing for head coach Mike D’Antoni:
Bryant, sources said, has “no interest” in playing for D’Antoni next season, and wants a new coach in place for the ’14-’15 season.
After it was announced that Kobe would not return this season, the five-time NBA champion talked about a number of different things with the media. Mostly, Kobe emphasized change and wanting the Lakers to be back to form next season rather than waiting to pickup a potential game-changer like Kevin Love in the summer 2015.
Kobe knows his time is running out and may have finally come to the conclusion that he won’t be walking off into the sunset with a sixth ring under D’Antoni.
Obviously, this is speculation at this point, but D’Antoni has been rumored to be on his way out with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith stating that recently.
It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out and if Kobe’s comments force the Lakers front office to make some drastic changes before next season.
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