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The Black Mamba Kobe Bryant has seen better days.

Not only is his wife of 10 years divorcing him, but the NBA traded away his friend and teammate Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks, who swept the Lakers in the playoffs last year.

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2011 wasn’t Kobe’s year. The Lakers were kicked out of the NBA playoffs in the spring, he had to suffer through the NBA lockout, his coach Phil Jackson retired, he lost out to big free agent signees Chris Paul and Dwight Howard and in his first pre-season game, the Lakers got spanked by the L.A. Clippers.

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The problems only mount higher for Kobe. Playing in a shortened 66 game lock-out season, his career stats will take a hit, not nearly matching up to his numbers were it a regular 82 game schedule. What’s more, Kobe’s new coach Mike Brown used to coach his arch-nemesis LeBron James!

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And I say arch-nemesis because Kobe HATES losing to LeBron James and the Miami Heat. Last season the Miami Heat played the Los Angeles Lakers twice, once at the Staple Center on Christmas Day and the other in Miami. Both resulted in a Lakers L. After the Miami loss it prompted the Black Mamba to hold up the team bus while he worked out for an extra hour.

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It has to be the LeBron factor that gets under Kobe’s skin, because many NBA insiders and analysts have crowned James the best player in the league, usurping Kobe’s title.

The Lakers were swept by the Chicago Bulls in their two meetings last season and Kobe didn’t stage an extra work out after either of those losses.

This is a pivotal moment in Kobe’s career, his team is an aging bunch, he’s the only player on the Lakers worth watching, the Clippers, who the Lakers share an arena with, scored the number one free agent in Chris Paul and now he’s starting off the NBA season with a divorce. After all, his wife of 10 years finally decided she couldn’t put up with his lost list of infidelities. 

Hopefully the pressures of this season won’t result in Kobe riding in a white Ford Bronco down an L.A. interstate highway while Pau Gasol drives.

Say what you want about Kobe, the dude thrives on pressure, when the game is on the line I want a baller with ice in his veins to take the last shot, and Kobe is that guy.

So yes, it’s going to be an interesting and challenging season for the Black Mamba and the only redemption he’ll have is if his Lakers raise the Larry O’Brien trophy in June, but unfortunately that’s not likely to happen.

S.G.