Kobe Bryant, who celebrates his 36th birthday this Saturday, will attempt to join a handful of standouts throughout league history as a veteran who simply won't conform to the mandates of Father Time.
Bryant has always been one of the league's best scorers, but he'll have his work cut out for him if he hopes to join Alex English, John Havlicek and the rest of the premier point producers who suited up at either shooting guard or small forward when they were 36:
There's a clear conflict here.
No 36-year-old wing player has ever touched the 20-point milestone, although Michael Jordan averaged 22.9 and 20.0 points per game in 2001-02 and 2002-03, respectively. Jordan was 38, 39 and 40 in those two seasons. Of course, he retired for the second time after the 1997-98 campaign and missed his age-36 season.
Bryant averaged 27.6 points per contest during the two campaigns prior to his injury-plagued 2013-14 go-around.
How about passing, which the Lakers 2-guard has done better and better as his career has progressed?
Matching Scottie Pippen's mark will be rather difficult, though Bryant has been above 5.9 dimes per contest each of the past two seasons. Admittedly, one of those years saw him play only six games, so his role as a de facto point guard might have been a small-sample-size fluke.
He'll have a better chance at the No. 1 spot there than as a rebounder, though.
Bryant's career average of 5.3 rebounds per game is barely higher than Pippen's record for wing players at 36 years old, and most players have tended to trend downward in rather definitive fashion. Coming off a season in which he averaged only 4.3 boards per contes...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
