



PHILADELPHIA – These trips home make Kobe Bryant his most introspective and nostalgic, deepening his understanding that the years are passing so fast now, time slip, slip, slipping away. He had gone back to see familiar faces in the leafy suburb of Lower Merion on Saturday, back to the high school where Gregg Downer still coaches the town's kids. Everything washed over Bryant this weekend.

"It's kind of surreal now, driving around, going to the same pizza place I went when I was 17," Bryant said outside his locker on Sunday night. "Where the hell does the time go?"

Seventeen years ago, Kobe Bryant was 17 years old and preparing for a prep-to-the-pros move that still seemed such a leap of faith. He has come back to this city and won a championship, been buried with boos and almost always used Philadelphia as a benchmark for how far he had come and still has to go.

At 34 years old, Bryant had been brilliant on Sunday night with 34 points, six assists and four rebounds. When the Lakers substituted him out with a minute left in a 111-98 victory over the 76ers, something strange happened here: In the Wells Fargo Center, most everyone stood up and cheered for Bryant.

As much as anything, perhaps they had come to admire one of Bryant's greatest gifts, an ability to wear everyone else out, grinding them down, defying the passage of speed, strength and agility.

[Related: Andrew Bynum: Playing with Kobe can 'stunt growth']

"He really seemed to be taking it all in and cherishing it tonight," Downer told Yahoo! Sports. "He was waving to fans, more interactive than usual. He knows he may be back only a few more times."

In Bryant's mind, maybe once more. The possibility of retiring when his contract expires in 2014 still looms large in his mind. He's weary of the toll that his rigorous workout regimens take on him. It isn't the winters that wear him out, but the summers.

View photos

For Bryant, it took discipline to spare himself the sluggishness that always comes with eating a Philly cheesesteak on a trip home.

"It's a lot, a lot of work," Bryant said. "My competitive spirit comes from like every little inch, your body is slowing down, the younger guys are passing you up. It really keeps me on edge."

The Lakers are slowly, surely recreating themselves under Mike D'Antoni, awaiting Pau Gasol's return to practice on Monday and, perhaps soon, the true arrival of Steve Nash. The Lakers need Nash to connect everything and everyone here, need a thread to run through Bryant and Dwight Howard, Gasol and Metta World Peace.

Bryant doesn't want to handle the ball so much, and he understands that changes when Nash steps on the floor. Within the locker room, Nash has made it clear that he has no desire to score the ball for these Lakers. He's running D'Antoni's system, and playing traffic cop between Bryant and Howard.

Nash gives Bryant the ability to play off the ball, to get his points in different spots on the floor, different ways. Pushing past 30,000 points for his career, Bryant makes no apologies and no concessions for his ability, his love, to shoot the basketball. The ball moved crisply on Sunday night, and Bryant scored his 34 in a most efficient way. Across the past six games, Bryant has delivered at least 30 points a game – something only Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had ever done after turning 34 years old.

Story continues