The Los Angeles Lakers will begin their 68th season tonight, hoping a team that includes a 37-year-old Kobe Bryant and seven players with one year or less of NBA experience can return to respectability following the worst record in the team’s history.
When Bryant enters the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Staples Center it will mark his 20th season in the NBA, all with the Lakers, an NBA record for a player with one organization.
Bryant will also become the fifth player in league history to play at least 20 seasons, joining Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett, who will begin his 21st season when he enters the game, and the retired Robert Parish and Kevin Willis, who both played 21 seasons, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played 20.
Bryant missed the Lakers’ final three preseason games after suffering a contusion in his lower left leg during a 107-100 preseason loss to the Sacramento Kings in Las Vegas Oct. 13, when he tripped over the right foot of guard Rajon Rondo and his leg hit the right leg of center Kosta Koufos.
“The injury has been slowly getting better,” Bryant told reporters Tuesday at the team’s training facility in El Segundo. “The past couple days I’ve been able to move it a lot more and do some of the things I feel comfortable doing.”
The Lakers were 21-61 last season, when Bryant was sidelined for the final 39 games because of a right rotator cuff tear, missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season for the second time. They have never missed the playoffs three consecutive seasons.
To Bryant, the Lakers’ success depends on “how quickly we pick up the game.”
“It all depends on the learning curve,” Bryant said. “You can say it so much, but once you get out there and start playing and you have to travel and work through the nuances of the schedule, that’s when you really learn.”
The Lakers’ roster includes four rookies — guard D’Angelo Russell, the second player chosen in the NBA draft; forward Larry Nance Jr, the 27th overall selection; guard-forward Anthony Brown, who was chosen in the second round; and 32-year-old Brazilian guard Marcelo Huertas, who has played professionally for 14 seasons, including the past four for Spain’s FC Barcelona.
The team’s other newcomers include Roy Hibbert, expected to be the starting center, guard Lou Williams, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year last season when he averaged a career-best 15.5 points per game with the Toronto Raptors, and forward Metta World Peace, who returns to the Lakers following an absence of two seasons.
The game is the first time in the common draft era, which began in 1966, that the top two picks in the most recent NBA draft will square off in their regular season debuts. according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Minnesota center Karl-Anthony Towns was the first player chosen.
The game comes three days after the death of Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders from Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 60.
“He and I used to have a lot of conversations on the sidelines,” Bryant said. “I remember him being extremely animated. He was very passionate about the game.”
