Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant got another rest day, prompting doubts about his near superhuman ability to play through injuries and pain.
Bleacher Report noted that Father Time might have finally defeated Kobe Bryant and the sorry sight is almost unbearable to watch.
"The humbling continued Sunday night at the Staples Center, where Bryant did not play for the fifth time in 11 games, simply opting for rest as the Lakers fell to Portland, 106-94. Scott stopped by the confessional beforehand to take the blame for pushing Bryant to 'overload,'" the article noted.
Prior to the game, coach Byron Scott talked to ESPN about Kobe Bryant getting another rest.
"I talked to him this afternoon and told him he didn't even have to come tonight but he wanted to come anyway. It's just my feeling that I wanted to give him another day of rest ... If the legs are good and his body is pretty good and he's not feeling any soreness or any stiffness or anything like that, then we'll go from there," he said.
Coach Byron Scott is also considering shutting down Kobe Bryant for good, at least for this season, to give his old body a lot of rest.
"I haven't thought about that yet. I keep thinking about game-to-game right now. So I haven't gotten to that point. Maybe after the All-Star break, maybe we will start talking about something like that if necessary," he said.
The coach also admitted that he might have worked Kobe Bryant to the ground by playing him too many minutes. At the start of the season, the Black Mamba envisioned to play around 32 minutes, but Byron Scott thought he could play 36 minutes.
"I thought his workload was too much. He had a number and my number was higher. His number was right when I look back at it," he said, adding that they also resorted to giving Kobe Bryant rest every now and then to help his legs recover.
