Kobe Bryant met with the front office in Los Angeles after he tore them to shreds in the media, and he remains confident in the Lakers’ ability to quickly bounce back from a devastating season. Bryant is aiming for one of the greatest turnarounds in NBA history. Per the LA Daily News:
The Lakers (23-46) are destined to miss the playoffs for only the fifth time in franchise history and face too many offseason questions. The Lakers will likely draw a top first-round pick. But the depth surrounding the 2014 draft class does not feature a definitive player who could instantly turn around a franchise. (GM Mitch Kupchak) has publicly praised coach Mike D’Antoni for handling a injury-depleted roster that features plenty of players that lacked significant roles elsewhere. But the Lakers have not yet decided if they will retain him after this season despite being owed a guaranteed $4 million. The Lakers have 12 of their 15 players this offseason becoming free agents.
“Extremely confident,” Bryant said. “That was one of my concerns (when he re-signed) and they assured me, ‘This is fair for you for everything you’ve done for the franchise and will continue to do while being able to construct a team that is going to contend for a championship here over the next couple of years.’”
Perhaps that is why Bryant poked fun on the current Lakers possibly having the chance to become the worst team in franchise history. They would have to go at least 8-5 to eclipse the 1974-75 team that finished with a franchise-worst 30-52 record.
“If you’re going to fail, I guess you should fail and be the best at it,” Bryant said, laughing. “You have to have a sense of humor in very dark moments. The reality of it is it’s been a brutal year. But there’s nothing we can do about it right now. It’s important not to try to beat ourselves up too much about it right now. It is what it is, We’ve been decimated with injuries. Now is the time to regroup, look ahead and start strategizing as an organization how are we going to turn this around. We might have had the worst season ever for a Laker team. But let’s have the greatest comeback that the league has ever seen.”
