Kobe Bryant is getting old. No one wants to say it, but it is true.
The Los Angeles Lakers guard is only 32, but by NBA standards he is old. He came into the league straight out of high school at the age of 18. He has played in more than 1,000 regular season games and almost 200 more in the post-season.
He does not soar quite as high, does not shoot quite as well, does not dominate quite like he did.
Which is not to say he is still not one of the league's best players. He is no longer No 1, having relinquished that crown to LeBron James a couple years ago.
But he no longer plays most of his game above the rim. He is reluctantly recognising the years, almost never actually training with the team.
"Because I have very little cartilage under my right knee cap, it's almost bone on bone," Bryant told the New York Post.
I do not mean to rain on his parade; last week he surpassed Oscar Robertson for ninth place on the NBA's all-time scoring list, and he leads all players in the All-Star voting.
But he is shooting 45.4 per cent, his lowest level in six seasons. He is having trouble motivating teammates. And it could very well be the Lakers' window of winning championships is closing.
Bryant has proven he can play through pain. Last season he played with a fractured finger and the bad knee, and the Lakers still repeated as champions.
Maybe he is simply pacing himself. Or maybe, he is just feeling the years.
sports@thenational.ae
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
SCHEDULE
Thursday, December 6
08.00-15.00 Technical scrutineering
15.00-17.00 Extra free practice
Friday, December 7
09.10-09.30 F4 free practice
09.40-10.00 F4 time trials
10.15-11.15 F1 free practice
14.00 F4 race 1
15.30 BRM F1 qualifying
Saturday, December 8
09.10-09.30 F4 free practice
09.40-10.00 F4 time trials
10.15-11.15 F1 free practice
14.00 F4 race 2
15.30 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
'Ashkal'
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Youssef%20Chebbi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Fatma%20Oussaifi%20and%20Mohamed%20Houcine%20Grayaa%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A