Difficult to watch. Painful. Heartbreaking.

These are just a few descriptions to describe the scene in the Staples Center as Kobe Bryant limped off the court on Friday night. Many people in the stands or people just watching the game didn’t think too much of the injury, they just knew that he was having a very hard time and needed to leave the court. The man was in obvious pain and the fans knew it.

Lakers fans hope Kobe can get back to the court soon. By Keith Allison from Kinston, USA, via Wikimedia Commons

The injury looked bad, but nobody knew what was coming within the hour. It was a torn Achilles, out for the season and possibly the end to an era in Laker-land. After all he is going to be turning 35 this coming August and there has been much speculation of his retirement after his contract expires next season. The man the Laker faithful has looked to as a God was now finally looking human. Kobe has made a living off of defying odds and playing through a number of countless injuries and somehow still producing at his incredible level but not this time. When asked postgame if this was something he could just rest and shake off, Kobe said with puffy eyes, a sign of the Mamba breaking down, “I can’t walk”. And for anyone who read Kobes’ 3:00 AM rant on Facebook, it showed you his disappointment and love for his team and the city he plays for.

So, what now? Where does a Laker franchise go from here? For the last 17 years, Kobe has been the “man” and now he’s hurt. In the midst of one of the strangest and longest Lakers seasons in recent memory, it seems that he was destined to finally get hurt. Every member of the starting five has missed time this season with injuries from Nash to Pau to Dwight and so on. They had a coaching change going from defensive-minded Mike Brown to offensive powerhouse Mike D’Antoni. In my opinion, the season has been a complete failure since the day that the management spurned Phil Jackson and went with D’Antoni to coach the team. That being said, D’Antoni can coach and is good at it, so props to him for what he has done with all the distractions. Still, he isn’t the right coach for the Lakers. Many people will look at the extreme amount of minutes Kobe played before the injury including playing all 48 minutes against Portland, a game I was in attendance at. But in reality, Kobe needed to play all those minutes just to put this team into position to make the playoffs. Kobe knows his body better than almost any athlete I have ever seen and he wanted to play. It isn’t as if Kobe said no and D’Antoni forced him to go into the game.

As for Kobe and the Lakers, I don’t believe that he is done. He just can’t be. He is too good and too strongly motivated to get that coveted sixth ring to be done. Luckily for Kobe he didn’t tear his ACL or anything as serious like that. An Achilles tear is serious but is recoverable. He is expected to be out six to nine months, which would put him in perfect position to start the season if all goes well. Kobe is a freak when it comes to healing from injuries and despite the fact that he has never had to deal with this serious of an injury, I expect him to recover and be ready to chase the trophy again. But for now, Bryant is a spectator and coach on the bench as his team tries to make the playoffs without him.

What now?

It is now Dwight Howard’s time to step up and take control of his team and prove to the management and the fans that he is the building piece that we all believe him to be. It’s his time to shine and earn his money. I believe the Lakers will still make the playoffs and could possibly make a small run depending on whether or not they make their shots. Dwight Howard has already led a team to the NBA Finals once before in his career, only to be bested by Kobe and the Lakers. The part that makes me and many other fans so upset is all the hard work this team has put in to put themselves in position to make the playoffs after such a horrible start even with all the distractions and injuries throughout the season. The timing of the injury and just the injury in itself to the player is wrong.

This highly touted Laker season has been horrible for the players, for the fans and for the city of Los Angeles. A season that started with so much hope and happiness after acquiring Nash and Howard has turned into an injury-prone year where the team is barely holding onto the eighth seed in the West with two games left. If someone told me that in the beginning of the year, I would have laughed and brushed it off but now it has become a nightmare of a reality and the cherry on the top of this misguided season is now the unfortunate injury to Kobe.

Kobe is more than a basketball player to the city. He is a role model, a leader and most importantly a person who has given L.A. hope for his whole career with the purple and gold. His passion for the game of basketball and his raw will to win is unlike anything anyone has ever seen since Michael Jordan stepped foot onto a court and it seems we may never see a player with that mentality again in the NBA. With his killer instinct, you better believe the Black Mamba will be back and better than ever. The man has too much motivation to prove everyone wrong not too be.