Nearly eight months after injuring his Achilles tendon, Kobe Bryant finally returned to the Los Angeles Lakers lineup Sunday against the Toronto Raptors. Though, the Raptors spoiled his return by topping the Lakers 106-94. Still, he did offer some interesting thoughts after the game in his first official post-gamer of the season.
Here are the highlights:
To start, here’s Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni on Kobe Bryant’s minutes:
D'Antoni said he would like to play Bryant 25-26 minutes moving forward. Kobe played 28 on Sunday
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 9, 2013
Here’s Pau Gasol having Kobe’s back, despite the rough debut:
Despite the loss and Kobe's pedestrian stat line, Pau had his back: "I think tonight was a very positive performance by him"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 9, 2013
Now Kobe’s opening remark:
Kobe: "My rhythm is completely out of sync … But this is a start. I guess a start is good"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 9, 2013
Kobe then dropped this sweet one-liner:
Kobe with a solid one-liner: "I think the last time I had eight months off I was still in the womb."
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 9, 2013
Kobe on how it felt to be back on the court:
Kobe on playing again: "Weird. It was really weird."
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) December 9, 2013
Kobe says he feels better than expected after tonight's game.
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) December 9, 2013
Kobe on how he moved throughout the game:
"I'm still not sure exactly what I can do." -Kobe on movement during the game
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) December 9, 2013
Soreness won’t be because of injury, but because of Kobe’s old age:
Kobe makes joke about soreness and age: "That's probably because I'm 60."
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) December 9, 2013
"My tendon feels completely fine." – Kobe
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) December 9, 2013
Apparently, Kobe’s fat:
Kobe says he now thinks he needs to drop some more weight to be even more effective.
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) December 9, 2013
Stats-wise, Kobe wasn’t happy with what he did tonight:
In terms of his expectations, turnovers, etc. "This was a compete failure to me." – Kobe
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) December 9, 2013
Kobe feels he’s in a good place, but needs to get back into basketball game shape:
Kobe: I really worked hard on my conditioning. I feel like I could run all day long. It's a matter of getting my game legs back.
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 9, 2013
Kobe on the emotion of playing:
Kobe on the emotions of tonight: You try to control it as much as you can. I've worked my butt off this entire summer to get to this place.
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 9, 2013
Kobe knows Kobe:
Bryant is excited about things moving forward. He is optimistic because he said he knows exactly where/how to improve.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) December 9, 2013
Kobe is going to go home and watch Christmas movies all night long, well kind of:
Kobe says he'll watch film "pretty much all night."
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) December 9, 2013
Kobe likes the bench, or the players sitting on it:
"Our bench is phenomenal." – Kobe
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) December 9, 2013
Kobe, how’s your form?
"Right now my form is a horse sh*t form." – Kobe
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) December 9, 2013
Haters gon hate on Kobe:
Kobe on dealing with doubters: It's like chopping a tree. One swing of the axe isn't going to cut it.
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 9, 2013
In case ya’ll wanted to know:
Kobe just said at this press conference his favorite Star Wars movie is "Return of the Jedi", thought I should let you know.
— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) December 9, 2013
