With Kobe Bryant at the tail end of his career, many NBA fans look at LeBron James as the man who inherited the torch from Kobe as the league’s best player. The two remain good friends after a couple of stints together with the USA Basketball team and were seen laughing and joking with each other during the first meeting between the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers in January.
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Bryant played in only three more games before suffering the torn rotator cuff that would end his season. After the Cavaliers’ victory over the Lakers on Sunday, LeBron spoke about his feelings upon hearing about Kobe’s latest injury according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News:
LeBron on Kobe's injury: "It was the same way I felt when he tore his Achilles. Just wow." Expressed sympathy for another long rehab
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) February 8, 2015
The respect that Bryant has amongst his peers is likely unmatched in today’s NBA as every single player respects all that Kobe has done throughout his career. Watching any player go down is tough, but one as legendary as Kobe is even more difficult especially considering this is his third straight season to come to an end due to injury.
Kobe is expected to make a full recovery, hopefully in time for the Lakers’ season opener next year. He proved a lot of people wrong with his play this season and he will look to do it again next year as he and LeBron hopefully still have two more meetings left before Bryant likely hangs it up for good.
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