LOS ANGELES – Eventually, all snakes shed their old skin. The venomous African serpent with which Kobe Bryant has identified for the last decade, the black mamba, is no exception.
It sheds as it ages, it sheds when it suffers a wound.
Before the snake ditches its old scales in favor of new scales, there is a period in which the transition is awkward and, well, ugly.
The Lakers’ Black Mamba spent the first quarter of the season in this stage. Bryant, 37, still acted the part of the All-Star he used to be, but was clearly undergoing a dramatic transformation.