There are a number of questions surrounding Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers heading into this season. With Kobe coming off of two major injuries and entering his 19th season in the NBA, no one knows quite what to expect this year.

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Because of that, the prognosticators haven’t been particularly kind to Kobe, with the latest shot coming from ESPN ranking him as the 40th best player in their #NBARank player rankings. Kobe had an excellent response to the ranking according to Lakers Nation senior writer Ryan Ward:

Kobe on whether ESPN ranking bothered him: “Nah. I’ve known for a long time that they’re a bunch of idiots.” — Ryan Ward (@Lakers_Examiner) October 17, 2014

Kobe was obviously in the mood for jokes as he made note that this was not something that he would use as motivation according to Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters:

Kobe's jokes continued on ESPN ranking: "I tend to use things for motivation that tend to be in the realm of reality" pic.twitter.com/riP5YivXLs — Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) October 17, 2014

Bryant was pretty clearly joking, but he isn’t the only Lakers player to be wronged on this list. Nick Young took offense to being ranked as the 150th best player, especially after having a career year last season.

These lists are all subjective and based on opinion. An older player like Kobe is bound to fall in preseason lists like this because everything points to a fall in his numbers. However, you can never doubt Kobe Bryant and he tends to take note of those who do — just so he can prove them wrong.

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