As Kobe Bryant noshes with Rajon Rondo, the Lakers plot to keep him around past 2016

Kobe Bryant has been through quite a bit in his basketball career, but he’s never been through anything like this. The Lakers are bad. Truly awful. The team has the worst defense in the league by far, worse than a Minnesota Timberwolves team that is primarily staffed with young men who can’t buy their own beer, and the squad is projected to win just 22 games this season. That’s worse than the 27-win monster of a 2013-14 season, and worse than the 2004-05 outfit that previously stood as the last Kobe Bryant-outfitted squad to miss the playoffs.

Kobe, due to injury, didn’t have to ride out either of those seasons, though. All indications point to a healthy Kobe Bryant working the duration of 2014-15, though, attempting to drag his Lakers past the 25-win mark. With most top free agents likely to stick in their current cities during the 2015 offseason, Kobe’s 2015-16 squad could be equally as terrible, with 37-year old Kobe Bryant dragging around even older legs.

Bryant’s contract ends after that campaign, and in the months since Kobe’s extension became public it was assumed that his current two-year, $48.5 million deal would be his final one. If Lakers coach Byron Scott had his way, though, Kobe would come back for another round. That’s right, the Lakers are already pitching to Kobe Bryant about his decisions in the 2016 offseason.