Is Father Time Knocking at His Door?

After playing, 37 minuets against the Houston Rockets, Kobe finished with a respectable 27 points also adding to the field five rebounds, and seven assists. All in all, it was a good start for a recovering Kobe.

Kobe's knee hasn't healed yet. And his timing is a little off due to his minum preseason time. But I think he will be ok. He had surgery to correct his knee issues in the off-season. It's taking longer to heal due to "Father Time." But when it's healed, it'll be fine for the Lake Show.

I'm not talking fine as in high flyer/Kobe of yester-years. His game has evolved into more than that. You'll start seeing his FG% improve a bit once he gets his lift back when taking jumpers. It was obvious the 1st game his jumpers had no lift to them. Once he gets that going the Lakers will be rollin'.

I'm just glad that the role players have improved this year. Blake even played all of DFish's minutes in the 4th. Which is fine because Dfish will need his rest for the deep championship run this year. Shannon Brown impressed me the most. I knew he was working on his deep jumpers this off-season, but still that game he had was amazing.

It looked as though Bryant was playing more as a facilitator, than a scorer, and honestly that usually works out for the better of the team.

Kobe asked the media, "Do you really have to worry about me finding my shot?"

It almost seems silly to begin questioning arguably the best player of all-time, but reality is slowly showing us that father-time is starting to knock on Kobe's door.

The 32-year-old superstar is beginning to feel the natural effects of aging. During the off season, Kobe had surgery on one of his knees, but it hasn't seemed to bother him on a dramatic level...yet.

The obvious keyword is yet. It's hard to believe that Kobe is already 32 years old, but it's starting to become more visible in his game. Kobe doesn't seem to have the same lift on his shot as he used to have and his style of play is becoming more and more like that of Jordan's, towards the end of his career.

Kobe's knee is forcing him to rely more heavily on his I.Q. and less on his athleticism. This is what makes Kobe a great player. He has adjusted more and more each year and it's showing.

Only a couple of seasons ago, Kobe told the media that he had been working on his bank-shots and now, it has become one of his many diverse moves.

What about this season? Like I said before, he is coming off knee surgery, and for someone like him, a knee injury can't come at a more worse time in his career.

Kobe's game has relied on his athletic ability, mixed in with a whole lot of skills. No one is going to question his work ethic and I guarantee Kobe worked harder than any other player in the league during the off season, but will his body be able to hold up until late June?

"It doesn't matter, it depends what happens at the end of June. That's the only thing that's real important."

Ron Artest couldn't be any more correct. Who cares if Kobe isn't "Kobe," the whole season. We all know Kobe will always flip that switch and will hit that next gear when it comes playoff time.

Bryant just needs to stay healthy, "enough." If he can manage to play at his usual high-level and also continue to motivate and lead this Laker' team to the final once more, there is no reason to question his health.

As a die hard Laker' fan, I will stubbornly deny that Kobe has a knee problem, and I will continue to view Kobe as if he was still in his mid 20's.

But Charles is right, "There are two things you cannot beat, father time and Las Vegas Casinos."

The bottom line is, only time will give us a true indication of whether Kobe really is on his way down the hill, or if Kobe still has a couple years up his sleeve. The question is, do you believe in Kobe?

Kobe score 27 points. Yes it was 40% shooting but Kobe took two shots at the end of the 3rd quarter. He was trying to get a two for one and the other was a buzzer beater. If you subtract those tow shots he would of shot 50% from the field.

But the point is he had 27 points, 7 assist and 5 rebounds. If that is old and washed up then Kobe is greater than I thought. Why do dumb ass people confuse injury with age. Is Arenas old? Is D Wade old? They both had injuries and have not played well during the preseason. Ironically Kobe played better than Wade and was more efficient than Lebron in the season opener. Wade looked horrible and Lebron also shot 40% and had 9 turnovers.

I think that the inevitability of time is catching up to Kobe but the fact of the matter is Kobe is still going to be great,now i do believe he is now in a situation with this team where he is going to be more of a Defensive/Facilitator type of guy and when he is scoring shot after shot after shot it is going to be in the 4th quarter when he has to get in to "BLACK MAMBA MODE" see i know what kobe is thinking he's thinking hey i'll let Lebron,Durant,Rose,and Dwight and the rest of these young cats go out and kill them selves for the MVP title,but me i am going to ride this knee out till finals time then i will do all the other stuff....but for now in the regular season i see Kobe just taking it easy i think his regular season stats this year will look something like this 22ppg,8apg,6.5rpg..you see the points are lacking but the other stats are beefed up like i said he is now in a position where he does not have to score 30-35 ppg for the team to win he just has to close for them and play really well off the ball,thus the increase in assist and rebounds...But tell me what you think about my prediction Hayden...