Kobe Bryant wasn't happy with how he played in his first game with the Los Angeles Lakers after he spent eight months recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. Bryant played poorly, he was responsible for almost as many turnovers (eight) as points (nine) in Sunday's 106-94 loss to the Toronto Raptors. After the game, an uncensored Bryant told the media:  "Right now my form is a horse shit form."  For the ultra-competitive Bryant it didn't matter that it was his first game back after recovering from what could have been a career-killing injury for many players his age, he felt like he should have done better. While Bryant's final stat line (9 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in 28 minutes) wasn't up to his normal standards, Bryant's mere presence added an extra antagonistic element to the game that the NBA has been lacking in his absence.  The last time we saw Kobe Bryant in a game was way back in April when he tore his tendon in a win over the Golden State Warriors, ending his season only a few weeks before the start of the playoffs. Without Bryant, the San Antonio Spurs swept the Lakers in the first round of the postseason, a series that ended in Staples Center with Dwight Howard ending his forgettable tenure in LA by semi-deliberately fouling out of the lopsided loss. With the Lakers season all but over, Bryant emerged from the locker room, on crutches, as if making an end-of-the-credits surprise cameo in an otherwise lousy superhero film, giving cheering fans at least some amount of hope that he would return for a more entertaining sequel.  At the time no one knew exactly how much time Bryant would miss before making his return. When the Lakers lost Howard to the Houston Rockets, some experts suggested that the Lakers would be best served by shelving Kobe Bryant as long as possible and taking advantage of the promising 2014 NBA Draft, a rare opportunity for a team as consistently successful as the Lakers. Maybe this might have been a smarter move for the Lakers to make, but even those who suggested it knew the organization would never go through with it. Instead, the Lakers signed Bryant to a two-year, $48.5 million contract extension a few weeks ago before even seeing if their injured 35-year old star could even still play at the NBA level.  Funnily enough, this extension probably hurts Bryant's chances of winning a sixth championship with the Lakers. Even in the unlikely event that Bryant's recovery is completely successful and he plays like the MVP he was during his peak, it's difficult seeing this Lakers team return to the NBA Finals in the next few seasons without some sort of major roster reconstruction, which would be close to impossible if they are still making Bryant the highest-paid basketball player in the league.  Yes, Bryant's return should help the Lakers remain competitive for the next two-plus seasons, but it's hard to see them coming out of a crowded Western Conference where they would have to leapfrog the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and even, it seems now, the Portland Trail Blazers. Although the Lakers had a completely respectable 10-9 record coming into this game, it's not like the Lakers are even locks to make the postseason this year now that Bryant has returned earlier than expected. There remain serious questions about Bryant's health, age and ability to work within the successful scheme head coach Mike D'Antoni has been running without him. If Bryant seemed overly critical himself after his very first game of the season, it might be because he knows that he will need to be great just to carry his team into the postseason and that anything less would reduce his comeback to a moral victory. There are no such things as "moral victories" in Kobe Bryant's world.  For Kobe Bryant, it seems, there are only wins and losses. It's a bleak black-and-white way of looking at the world that befits one of basketball's biggest bad guys. While Lakers fans view Kobe Bryant's return as something like the return of a conquering hero, for most basketball fans, it feels more like a horror movie villain left for dead re-emerging from his grave. Not only is Bryant one of the all-time basketball greats, meaning he has most likely played really really well against your favorite team, but he did so as part of the Lakers, one of the most successful (and most hated) franchises in US sports.  Beyond those facts, which are mostly neutral accidents of genetics, geography and happenstance, Bryant frequently falls back on a selfish, ball-hogging game that would irritate teammates, opponents and spectators alike even if he were an anonymous nobody playing in a meaningless pick up game. Bryant is somehow even more divisive off the court, a locker room liability even in the best of times who can go full-on Walter White whenever things start to break bad.  Kobe Bryant's return on Sunday night meant a lot in basketball terms, after all a contending team welcomed back their best player after months lost to injury, but it might have meant more for the NBA in general. The pro basketball world has its biggest villain back, and they didn't even have to hire anyone to write his quips for him. Talking with the media about the patience it took to return from his injury, Bryant noted:  "I think the last time I had eight months off I was still in the womb."  His snark, if not yet his game, is already in postseason form.
Hunter Felt: Kobe Bryant returned to the LA Lakers after spending eight months sidelined by an Achilles injury