On Monday night, following the L.A. Lakers third straight loss to open the season, the talk of social media revolved around Kobe Bryant, of all people. Why? Because newest Laker LeBron James missed two potential game-sealing free throws, something Kobe would NEVER do according to his lovable legion of lunatic fanboys, or "stans" as many on Twitter refer to them as (urban dictionary definition here).
Those same Kobe "stans" must have lit up like a Christmas tree when they saw Kobe was conveniently going to appear on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" the next night. Among many other topics discussed, the Lakers 0-3 start to the season obviously came up, with Kimmel first asking if Bryant had seen any of the overtime thriller between his former team and the San Antonio Spurs. Bryant says he only caught the final eight minutes and all of overtime because he was coaching his daughter's basketball team. What a guy.
Naturally, Kimmel shifted to subject to what it would take for Bryant to come out of retirement and lace 'em up in the purple and gold once again. Ten losses? Twenty? According to Kobe, we could see him back in uniform as early as this Saturday night.
"If they go 0-5, I'll think about it," said Bryant, seemingly in a serious tone before laughing it off and saying, "noo, I won't." Here's the full clip:
Honestly, would anyone put it past him if he showed up in San Antonio on Saturday? This would of course mean that LeBron & co. would have to lose on Wednesday night in Phoenix against an up-and-coming but still quite bad Suns team, and then again on Thursday at home against one of the early surprises of the NBA season, the 4-0 Denver Nuggets. One would think there is no way LeBron is letting them lose to Phoenix, but if they do, let the Kobe rumors swirl!
Obviously, there's no way he's coming out of retirement, but we all know both Kobe and his "stans" believe he can, should, and would lead the Lakers to a win on a 15-for-37 shooting night from the field. I'd watch.
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