i find it odd that this is one thing that i never see discussed, considering the fact that he's chasing history. after the gasol trade was made last year, and it seemed inevitable that the lakers would cruise to the title, all of the talk was of potential dynasty due to the team's youth. it's pretty much taken for granted that, like MJ, he won't age. he's already 30, entered the league at 18, and has some serious playoff mileage on his body. one might say that he trains harder than anyone in the league, but the body eventually begins to break down despite one's efforts. how many years does he have left at this elite level? due to his outside shooting ability, like jordan, his transition should be smooth, but i haven't even seen him slow down one bit yet.
He is so crafty, the footwork is excellent, and he is great at adding pieces to his offensive game. Kobe seems like the kind of guy who wants break as many records as he can. The Lakers should be competitive for a long time now that they have Bynum. So I think he stays for awhile.
I say he has one more contract left in him. I say 3 more years as a superstar and 2 after that as a role player.
He's relying on jumpers for majority of scoring. Barring serious injury, he can avg 20 ppg until 40 since he trains harder than MJ and doesn't like baseball.
I was thinking about this just the other day. Let's say he stays in the league until he is 36. Kareem Abdul Jabar has 38387 total career points. Karl Malone has 36928. And Jordan has 32292. Kobe is at 23200 right now. If he averages 20 ppg from now until he is 36, which is 100% doable for him, and if he plays on average 70 games per season: Then 70*20 = 1400 points per season. 1400*5 = 7000 more points 7000 + 23200 = 30200 total points. He could easily be in the top 5 scoring of all time. Atleast...
I say he's easily got 6 more superstar years in him. The guy is a freak, physically. His body is designed to take the punishment, he works hard and I have NEVER not one time seen him even look remotely tired or slow down. If anything, he gets stronger as the game goes. And for those people, back in the day who said the Lakers were dumb for getting rid of Shaq instead of Kobe, ummm.... uh... I don't think so. That isn't even a debate any longer.
i can see 2-3 more years in him as a superstar. a very good player for a few more after that. so yeah, one more contract left.
i thought he was declining like 2 years ago before gasol. but then he went ahead and won the mvp and is continuing to play out of his mind. even though his body will eventually wear down, you can see his passion and determination to win the game which will add on few more extra years. ill go ahead and say 5 more years and 2 years with smaller contract.
I believe so cause he takes basketball so seriously and you don't question his dedication to the game. winning is all that matters to Kobe, which you can't say about other players.
It's down right mind blowing that in Jordan's last season, he played all 82 games, 37 minutes per night, and put up 20 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1.5 steals. At the age of 40! Now, Kobe is not Michael Jordan, but he's the closest thing we've seen. Just judging by what MJ did, I don't see why Kobe couldn't play at an elite level until he's nearly 40 as well. Especially if he gets another title soon. He'll probably start thinking about chasing Jordan's 6, and will definitely want to top Shaq's 4.
Cassell's last decent season was when he was 38. As long as you can shoot jumpers and create space, you can play for along time.
That is amazing. Kobe is going to be at elite level for another 3-4 years, then come back down to earth, but still put up top 10 type numbers before he hangs them up. Probably still won't dethrone MJ as the greatest when its said and done.
Jordan didn't play for like 4 years of his career. He couldn't have done that at 40 without all the time off.
You think taking time off from the NBA game and then coming back makes you better? I don't think that gap between him coming back with the Wizards helped him at all. If anything, it made it harder for him to get his game back. MJ was just that good. At the age of 40, he was still a Top 20 Player in the NBA.
I think you will see Kobe continue to be a 25+ppg, 5 assist, 5 rebound guy for another 2-3 years while still remaining pretty athletic. I think after that he will obviously be a few steps slower than he is now but I still think he will will be able to average around 20ppg until his late 30s if he wants to. His biggest problem will be defensively. He won't be able to keep up with SG in the league and he is not big enough or strong enough to play SF consistently. I think if he chooses to play past the age of 36-37 he could still come off the bench for a team and drop serious numbers in 26-28 minute per game. It would help prolong his career for sure.
He saved his body a lot of wear and tear by not playing. I see your point too and I also wonder if taking all that time off, gaining the extra weight and then having to lose it at his age made him lose more athleticism than he would have had he stayed in basketball shape all that time.
I agree. I think he'll play at this level for at least 4 more yrs then hed still be a very good player for 3 after that. Their team is young enough and good enough that he doesn't have to dominate the whole game so that saves wear.
