Father Time and the Legacies of Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning

As a life-long sports fan, who is entering his mid-20s, you start to understand historical context. When you look at the past 25 years and want to start a Mount Rushmore of sports, a quick group of names come to mind. Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, these seem to be guys that, in my historical context, have been in the game forever and all have dominated. Jeter, who had a pro career from 1996-2014, was the first of this group to see father time have his way. Brady being the last to go pro in 2001 seems to be the furthest away from ending his era. Oritz and Duncan were drafted in 1997, and as Oritz has announced his farewell tour in a Jeter way next season, Duncan at age 39 seems to be defying father time, but will surely see his day. Now we get to Bryant and Manning. Two of the greatest of our time, drafted in 1996 and 1998 respectively, have dominated a decade of sports. It seems funny, that in November of 2015, both seem to be on that decline in the hardest of ways, and to the contrary to Jeter and Oritz, these two may not be able to map out their farewell tour, as nobody should argue that this is the last year for both. While they both have now met on this same path, it is interesting to see the completely different, yet somewhat similar paths in which got them to their points. 2011: Bryant missed 24 games a few months after spending time in Germany getting his knee worked on. He got injured in the 2011 playoffs, he played through it, as he always did, but it effectively ended his teams’ season. It was Dirk Nowitzki who finally got a title after that series, and Bryant was coming off an NBA title win so a lot of people shrugged it off. Manning’s year effectively ended the Colts’ 2011 regular season. Neck surgery was announced after an 0-4 start in which he didn’t start any games, and it hurt the Colts more than Bryant hurt his Lakers that year. The Colts went 2-14 and were the worst team in the league. While Bryant faces a similar situation with the Lakers later, the major difference is that the Colts were handed the first overall pick, and a sure thing in Andrew Luck. 2012: Manning got to pick a new team via free agency, the Broncos. With Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Ryan Clady, and especially a defense that had emerging talent, Denver seemed to be the wise choice. While that looked good on paper, the Lakers looked even better with a former two-time MVP Steve Nash, and Dwight Howard who had lost to Bryant and the Lakers during Bryant’s prominence in the NBA finals. Both teams entered November of 2012 as finals favorites. Nash had lost his battle with father time, and Howard, after a few deep playoff runs was injured most of the year. 2013: While the Lakers fell apart, Manning boomed in a new situation that fit his skill set. A team that could win with Tim Tebow could surely make the playoffs with Manning. In those playoffs, Manning met his 2011 Nowitzki, Ray Lewis. Lewis, who had announced his retirement to come after his team’s next loss used this momentum to run the table. Manning threw the game-sealing pick, and Manning now seems to have felt a bit like Bryant, circa 2011. Heading into the 2013 playoffs without Dwight Howard, the Lakers looked like a long shot. Four games before the playoffs, Bryant tears his Achilles, just as devastating if not a more devastating injury than Manning and his risky neck surgery in 2011. While Manning and Bryant just switched roles, Bryant, a year removed from Achilles surgery, and coming back way too early to start the season less than eight months removed from the injury, tried to push through it. While Manning had seen his replacement coming in Indy, Bryant still had to carry the load in LA. This seemed to be the beginning of the end of Bryant, and six games ended his year with knee surgery. Here is a major difference in the two. While Manning should not be ridiculed by his decision to not play in 2011, it may have extended his prime past Bryant’s. Bryant, seemingly in the same situation two years later, chose differently and pushed his limits. Of course, Bryant’s six game run gave the Lakers a top 5 pick, and the Lakers had to enter the offseason deciding, similarly to Indianapolis, whether to move on from your icon athlete and start over or to keep pushing it with him. With that said, Manning had his last run in 2013-14. 2014: Manning set records in 2013, but the winter of 2014 seemed to be a push from father time. After the first snap of the Super Bowl went through his hands, the Broncos end up getting demolished in the Super Bowl. While Manning used his time off to find a better situation and make a Super Bowl in Denver, Bryant was set in his ways to make the Lakers great again. The Lakers were in a much different spot than the Colts. In the NBA, a top five pick equals a 19-year-old with upside, but a guy who will not be a leader for two or three years. In the NFL, where college players must wait three years after high school graduation, the Colts top pick was ready to be an NFL starter. While both rosters were bare, except the top picks, the Lakers chose differently and chose to resign Bryant. Many looked at it as a lifetime achievement award as he became the second highest paid player in the NBA a year after playing in six games. While Manning had pieces around him to continue success into 2014, Bryant had no one. His top five pick was out for the year before he soon followed with his own injury after playing 35 games. This time it was shoulder surgery. To look back you wonder, had the Lakers missed the playoffs before Bryant tore his Achilles, does any of this change? Does Bryant pull a Manning; does he find a situation that fits his needs? Does playing for a more talented team give Bryant more time to miss the start of the 2013-14 season? Does that extend his career from spring of 2013 to two healthier years down the road? Manning, on a roster that needed him much less than Bryant, was doing fine in his role to start 2014. However, a little over three years removed from his neck surgery, injury struck again, and now at 38, many questioned if Manning would even be back for 2015. 2015: We now find ourselves at a the cross roads. Bryant, who had played through more injury, and had stuck with his first NBA team, had no hesitation accepting being the second highest paid player, despite playing 35/82 games in the first year of that two-year deal. Manning took the other path again. While he decided playing through injury was not worth it, his first team decided he was not worth it either. Then in 2015, his second team had a similar feel. Manning took a four million dollar pay cut and turned that money into team incentives. Bryant, who had no team, had no reason to do anything similar. So here we are. Whether it started in 2011 or 2015, two icons are limping down the stretch. Bryant is suffering from career lows in points and shooting percentage, while Manning has a TD:INT ratio of 7:19. The Lakers, who had no money to spend to improve Bryant’s cast, seem to be waiting for the 37-year-old to end his season early via retirement or try to carry them so far that his diminished skills get them another top five pick to build with. The Broncos, who currently are the big winner in all of this, had three years of free agents sign with their team because of Manning, and now have an even better roster than what Manning walked into. While both stars have held their team back, the Broncos are playoff and Super Bowl contenders, while the Lakers are at the bottom of the league. You tend to wonder, as the Colts have not missed the playoffs since Manning left, if the Colts made the smarter decision than the Lakers. Sure, the Lakers would be in a similar spot, but having an extra $25+ million over the past two years may have been able to put the roster in a better top to bottom situation. However, we then look at legacy. Bryant can be the guy to claim that, for 20 NBA seasons, he was on one team. He was there for the worst; he was there for the best. Manning seemed to somewhat reluctantly miss the worst, but how would we be looking at him had the Colts hung onto Manning, and potentially traded their draft pick for a plethora of future picks? Would Manning have been the same as Bryant? Would he have been on baby sitter watch with all of these young draft picks, and would have accepted a raise, instead of a pay cut? Lastly, how would his health have changed? Bryant gave his all and risked multiple reinjuries for the Lakers, even in moments when it looked clear that there was no chance to win a title. Would Manning have done the same on a depleted 2012 Colts team? Andrew Luck as a rookie was being sacked almost twice as many times as Manning in Denver, and it raises the question, what if an early sack had set off a Kobe, circa 2013, injury-filled spiral to this point? No matter how you look at it, these two generational stars have now seen the lowest of their declines. Manning, who is currently inactive due to injury, may get one last shot to play an important playoff game, if he can get healthy, which he seemingly hasn’t been since this time last year. For Bryant, the run appears to be over. The Lakers now have a young core. They should have another top three pick, and with Bryant in his last year of a contract, it would be shocking to see the team that was once so grateful to him even want to resign him in the off season. Only so many players go out on top. John Elway, Michael Jordan, Jerome Bettis, Ray Lewis, the list is so small that you can easily almost name them all. Jeter got to announce his farewell tour, but statistically he wasn’t far off from 2015 Bryant and Manning. As we have learned, father time is a cruel person, and while we look at these two stars fading in front of our eyes, it is a good time to remember that from 1996-2011 these two men were the elite of elite. They dominated a 15+ year run of their sport, and while their greatness may not shine on a court or field in the near future, both should have their legacies shine from record books and hall of fame plaques.