Kobe Bryant: ‘I’m the 200th best player … I freaking suck’

Kobe Bryant always wants to be the best, but now The Black Mamba has said he thinks he “freaking sucks.”

The Los Angeles Lakers have kicked their 2015-16 season off by going 0-3, and Kobe Bryant’s poor performance is one reason why. They’re a young team with an awfully long way to go until they improve, and their five-time champion Black Mamba is refusing to take a smaller role as he shoots away possession after possession.

Now, as has been reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, Kobe has officially called himself the “200th best player in the league right now.”

Harsh words on his own performance by Kobe, but it’s a pretty accurate assessment. After the injuries he’s dealt with recently, especially to his achilles, we knew that he wouldn’t be his former self this season; at least at the beginning. At 37 years old in his 20th season, there’s just too much mileage on his knees and ankles for him to take on opponents as he used to and take 20+ shots a night. Yet, after three games, he’s still trying to be “that guy.”

So far, as the Lakers remain winless with a point differential of -9.7, Kobe has been taking brick after brick in an attempt to give his team an offense spark. Despite his efforts, he’s consistently failed so far. He’s down to 27.3 minutes per game, and with the young talent of Jordan Clarkson, Lou Williams and most definitely Julius Randle, Kobe isn’t meant to have such a significant role in the offense. He needs to sit back a little more, pick his shots, play more off-ball, and ultimately give his team a chance to reduce their reliance on him.

However, that’s clearly impossible for him right now.

Kobe is currently shooting 31.4 percent from the floor, which is bad enough regardless of the fact we only have a small sample size after three games. The real problem, though, is the ridiculous amount of shots he insists on taking. He’s averaging 17 field goal attempts per game, with 9.7 of those coming from three point range.

Jacking up that many threes is very rarely a key to success, unless you’re Stephen Curry.

To transfer that kind of shot selection into his impact per 36 minutes, Kobe is taking 12.7 threes in that time frame (more than double the amount of any other season in his career so far) and making them at a mere 20.7 percent rate. Of course, he’s just three games in and has 79 left to improve his efficiency, but he needs to start making changes now and learn that he’s no longer a player who can do it all.

The way he can improve his success is by reducing his role. 20 shots a night and countless threes won’t get him or his Lakers anywhere. Furthermore, it won’t help the young players get a chance to develop as effectively either.

So, at this early stage of the season, it looks like the only way we’ll see Kobe Bryant deliver is by noticeable cutting down his role.

It’s all down to him to make that happen.