What Eye Thought…

ESPN Senior NBA writer J.A. Adande seems to think so, and he makes some good points while proving his arguement:

Um, have you checked the stats leaders? Notice the K. Bryant, LAL, at the top of the leading scorers’ list? He’s come out firing, a 25.3 shots-per-game average that’s on pace to put him over 2,000 field goal attempts for only the second time in his career. He is connecting at a 49 percent rate, better than any other season. And his 33.6 points per game rival the standard of 35.4 he set in 2005-06. Yes, it’s possible that Kobe at age 31 is doing work as well as he’s ever done it, rather than just quietly slipping into the next phase of his career.

And of course, Kobe says he doesnt do it for the acolades, he does it for the love:

“I don’t really play for that,” Bryant said. “I know Michael’s speech [at the Hall of Fame], he played for a lot of those things. I don’t. I’m already there. I don’t need that stuff. It’s icing on the cake, but my motor’s already running. I just can’t stop. [There's] not something that motivates me. It’s just how I am.” It turns out that last season, when his scoring average dropped below 27 for the first time since 2004, was just a glitch, an aberration brought on by two years of playing in the NBA Finals interspersed by two summers playing for the USA national team. “I didn’t like doing it last year, but I understood that we were playing for the long haul, so it was something I had to do,” Bryant said. “Last year I just couldn’t, because of the long schedules that we’ve had … it was like, ‘OK, let me dial back a little bit.’

The Lakers are 6-1 and are sitting pretty right now. I dont expect Kobe to remain at the top of the league in scoring once Pao gets back, but its nice to know that he can still go off whenever he feels like it.

SOURCE