Times are a changing.
One day, you’re Kobe Bryant, ruler of the Los Angeles Lakers. Your will be done. Don’t like Shaquille O’Neal? He’s gone. Championships? Got ’em. Comparisons to Michael Jordan? Check.
Then, quite suddenly, you’re old, going on 36 and fresh off a season that saw you appear in just six games. You come to realize your own mortality, your individual shelf life. The team that was once yours will soon be someone else’s. Life after yourself is approaching, and there’s nothing you can do stop it.
Kobe’s decline has never been more prevalent or obvious than it is now. Forget the injuries and the six games he played. The team is beginning to put their future ahead of him, and it shows.
The most recent wakeup call comes courtesy of general manager Mitch Kupchak, who has been unrelenting in his attempt to downplay the impact Kobe will have on Los Angeles’ direction. Speaking with ESPN’s Andy Katz (via ESPN Los Angeles’ Dave McMenamin), he once again indicated the Black Mamba won’t factor into the Lakers’ ongoing coaching search:
Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak says the lines of communication with Kobe Bryant are open, but that doesn’t mean the star guard will get a say in whom the team hires as its next coach.
“From time to time we ask his advice,” Kupchak told ESPN’s Andy Katz at the NBA draft combine Thursday in Chicago. “He really won’t weigh in on something like this. I’m not even sure that we’ll talk to him prior to interviews. But from time to time, he is in our facility, I’ll go downstairs and I’ll talk to him about a bunch of different things.”
Kobe isn’t out of the loop entirely. The Lakers have a way of making him feel involved, be it with those conversations he’s having with Kupchak, or with a two-year, $48.5 million extension. They’re being smart about this. Give them that.
But they’re slowly weaning Kobe off his once-immeasurable power. Not including him in the search is yet another sign that the Lakers are thinking ahead, to life without him. There have been signs before, but this summer will be teeming with them.
Talking with Jimmy Kimmel, Kobe indicated that the Lakers haven’t consulted him on their last two hires, Mike Brown and Mike D’Antoni. But that doesn’t make this a tendency. When Phil Jackson retired in 2011, Kobe was 32. He didn’t need to have as much of a say in those matters. The Lakers aren’t looking for fillers or two-year stopgaps after all. They want a someone who will become a tenured coach, who will be leading them in the years to come.
Brown and D’Antoni didn’t work out. Perhaps the next guy will. Point is, Kobe isn’t who he once was. He can’t be. He won’t be playing forever. The Lakers have reached the point where they can no longer make decisions with him at the forefront of their minds. Could he be consulted? Sure. Just don’t count on it.
Finding a coach that doesn’t need to have Kobe’s stamp of approval is just the beginning. His waning control will be evident this summer, when the Lakers preserve cap space—and they will preserve cap space—in favor of chasing superstar free agents in summer 2015.
Doesn’t matter that Kobe will likely only play another two years, and that they’ll basically be sacrificing yet another season, limiting his potential title window to 2015-16. Much like they can’t pick their coach of the future with him in mind, they can’t build toward a better future roster-wise with him weighing in—because, for the first time, Kobe isn’t their future.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
