Basketball: James sticks up for struggling Bryant

Kobe Bryant's figures are down. Photo / AP

Kobe Bryant is going through tough times right now and he knows it.

"I suck right now," he said earlier this week, and since then he has been living up to his words. On Wednesday, Bryant missed a couple of three pointers in a row during the Lakers' 120-109 loss to the Nuggets - their fourth loss in four games.

While the 37-year-old grabbed 18 points in the Lakers' slump-busting win over the Nets yesterday, his shooting line of five-of-16 from the floor was still ugly.

But Bryant has at least one very famous friend on his side and that's Cavaliers star LeBron James.

"He knows he don't suck," James told the Akron Beacon-Journal this week. "C'mon man, it's Kobe Bryant."

James added: "What I see is a challenge to himself. It has zero to do with his age. Zero.

"I think at one point in my career, in my 20s, I felt like I sucked. It's all a personal challenge. I know him - that's all that is."

While James, 30, is certainly attempting to be friendly, his words might also be predictive of what could become of his own future.

Bryant's and James's career trajectories are not dissimilar. Both came to the NBA straight out of high school and both have taken basically no time off to rest their bodies. If they're not playing professionally, they're playing for Team USA.

Those kinds of minutes on the court are not easy on a player at any age, but are especially compounded when you don't give your body any real rest periods, year after year.

Bryant, who was forced to sit out the majority of the last two Lakers seasons due to injury, has started all five games this season. He's shooting 32.3 per cent from the field and 20.6 per cent from beyond the arc.

James, meanwhile, has also started all six games. He's landing 49 per cent of his field goal attempts, but a dismal 11.1 per cent from beyond the arc.

Of the 18 three pointers he's attempted, he's drained only two. Washington Post