Kobe Bryant Needs to Stop Making Excuses

Kobe Bryant says the Lakers are too old. I say he needs to stop making excuses and lead his team. (Andrew D. Bernstein)

The Philadelphia 76ers might not have the prestige names and honors that the Los Angeles Lakers players have had. However, the young 76ers stormed into the Staples Center and dominated the much older Lakers in a 103-99 victory on Tuesday night. The loss dropped the Lakers' record on the season to 15-16. After the game, Kobe Bryant had a colorful explanation.

"You just saw an old @#!*% team," Bryant continued. "I don't know how else to put it to you. We're just slow. You saw a team over there that was just younger and just had fresher legs and just played with more energy, and we were just stuck in the mud. I think individually we all have to figure out how to get ourselves ready each and every game to have a high level of energy. That's all that is."

Do you want to know what this boils down to? An excuse and to be quiet honest with you, a pathetic one at that. They are the fourth-oldest team in the NBA with an average age of 28.4. If this was their fourth game in five days or something, I would completely understand. However, the Lakers came into the home game against the 76ers on the three days rest.

If age is such a huge concern, how come I don't hear other teams and players complaining about? The New York Knicks are the oldest team in the NBA with an average age of 32.7. Rather than whining, the Knicks have been one of the league's surprise stories with a 21-10 record, good enough for the second-best mark in the Eastern Conference.

The Lakers’ next game is Friday against their crosstown rivals. The Clippers are the second-oldest team in the league with an average age of 29.3. All they've done recently is rattled off a streak of 17 straight wins. That is more wins than the Lakers have managed to get all season. No wonder more and more Lakers fans are becoming Clippers fans every day.

Bryant, 34, is supposedly the leader of the Lakers. Tim Duncan, 36, is the leader of the San Antonio Spurs, a team that is perennially called too old, but is always one of the best teams in the NBA every year. In tonight's win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Duncan scored 28 points (11-20 FG, 6-7 FT) to go with 13 rebounds, six assists, one steal and three blocks.

Duncan and the Spurs let their play do the talking, rather than their words. Bryant is so busy running his mouth and making excuses off the court that he isn't finding solutions on it. If he wants to be the leader on the court, than he needs to step up and make his teammates commit to working harder. Will the Lakers ever turn around this season? It will be when they start making the plays on the court, rather than complaining off of it.