Kobe Bryant’s return did not auger well for Lakers immediate future

LOS ANGELES — Kobe to the rescue?

Are you kidding?

Kobe Bryant made his long-awaited return in Sunday’s 106-94 loss to the Raptors, well before Christmas projections, but still too late to lead the Lakers as in days of yore.

Try four seasons too late, which is how long the days of yore have been over in Lakerdom.

Nor is this That Kobe. If he will ever get close again—you can just see Jim Buss going, “It’s early, it’s early… isn’t it?”– it’s weeks away.

This Kobe was dead-legged as you’d expect for a 35-year-old coming off Achilles surgery, flirting with a triple-double: nine points, eight rebounds and seven turnovers, shooting 2-for-9.

Of course, the Lakers all said it was a good start, which may have been minimally true, but is definitely all they have to believe in.
“I thought he was as good as he could be,” said Coach Mike D’Antoni. “It’s going to take a while.

“There’s no way—I know everybody thought he could, but there’s no way he could not have training camp and be out eight months and come out and be in mid-season form.”

“It was big time,” said Nick Young, marveling at the excitement. “We finally got to see Showtime.”

Well, almost.

“F,” said Bryant, grading himself. “For me, it was definitely an F….

“You know, I guess it’s a start…. [It was] weird. I think the last time I had eight months off, I was still in the womb.”

In the really bad news, Bryant in mid-season form isn’t likely to change their dynamic.

If D’Antoni accomplished wonders, going 10-9 with Steve Blake, Nick Young, et al., they would have had no chance of making it out of the first round, if, indeed, they made it in.

With Mid-Season Kobe, they will have little chance of making it out of the first round, if, indeed, they make it in.

As sure as Bryant was to be rusty, this was sure to be anticlimactic-by-definition as soon as the fans’ emotional welcome back died away.

In the really, really bad news for the fans, the season is anticlimactic, a managerial setup with players off the waiver wire to save $28.5 million in cap space for next summer.

That would leave room for a max player like Carmelo Anthony, if by some wild chance the Knicks season doesn’t turn out well … or even LeBron James if the Heat doesn’t win another title and/or Dwyane Wade, who’s missed six of their 21 games, is no longer D-Wade.

Of course, the Lakers could have gotten farther under the cap if they hadn’t given Bryant $48.5 mill over two seasons without seeing him play or exploring ways to get him to take less.

With Bryant at, say, $13.5 million, they would have been able to afford a max player, plus a $10 mill-per helper like Luol Deng… making them that much more attractive to the max players.

Not that the Lakers didn’t do the math, holding pace for three max players in coming seasons.

Of course, they won’t get the second until 2015 (hello, Kevin Love?).

The third won’t come until 2016, the year the Lakers are really focused on with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving potentially available at the head of a star-studded class.

Unfortunately, it’s just 2013, leaving a lot of dues to pay to create all those options.

Bryant’s career, now in its 18th season, is a testament to a commitment and will powerful enough to overcome as headstrong a nature as his.

He was the NBA’s most alienated superstar ever in 2005 when peers blamed him for running off Shaquille O’Neal.

Actually, rather than running anyone off, Kobe thought he was going to be the one who left.

Not that it was a hard choice for their peers, who loved Shaq, the big clown, and harbored dark suspicions about, Kobe, the remote.

In the summer of 2007, Bryant, finally giving up on finding a light at the end of the tunnel, demanded to be traded, lashing out at the Lakers from Jerry Buss down for betraying him.

That season he won his only MVP and led the Lakers into the first of three Finals appearances in a row, eventually winning his fourth and fifth rings in 2009-2010.

However, if there’s one thing in Bryant’s professional life that he prizes as he does winning, it’s his cachet as a businessman.

Maybe that’s what led him to take all the money the Lakers were willing to give him, while persuading himself he wasn’t forgoing any options that could help turn them around in his professional lifetime.

For the moment, he’s a 35-year-old player, resigned to waking up sore Monday.

“But that’s only because I’m about 60,” Bryant said, laughing.

That will have to do for the Lakers at the moment, with no more days of yore in sight.

Hall of Fame writer Mark Heisler is a regular contributor to SheridanHoops, the Orange County Register and LakersNation. Follow him on Twitter.