National Basketball Association

Kobe uses 'Titanic' metaphor for Lakers; Magic hopes they 'lose every game'

Published Dec. 9, 2014 5:34 p.m. ET

foxsports

If this keeps up, Lakers fans need to be prepared for near-daily commentary -- even from their own ranks.

After all, Los Angeles is 5-16 so far this young NBA season, with no end to the misery in sight.

Benching Carlos Boozer and Jeremy Lin didn't help. And short of Rajon Rondo joining up with the team -- hey, he and Kobe Bryant DID have a breakfast summit, after all -- it's unclear how the Lakers expect to stop taking on water.

Speaking of sinking, Kobe himself used perhaps the best possible metaphor for the season this weekend after his team lost -- at home, amid a shower of boos -- to the New Orleans Pelicans.

"If this was the Titanic, I'd go down with that s---," Bryant said, according to ESPNLosAngeles.com's Baxter Holmes. "I'm not jumping off."

Interesting word choice. But at least he's loyal. Gotta give him that.

But if the team wants to avoid capsizing, maybe it doesn't need any other Laker legends piling on?

Enter Magic Johnson, who weighed in Tuesday to Newsweek with his own thoughts on this dreadful season:

Can't argue with that logic. As painful as it might be for someone like Kobe Bryant to play on this team and for fans to watch it on a nightly basis, imagine how it must feel for Magic, who knows exactly how it feels to do both.

But it might not all be doom and gloom. After telling Newsweek why the similarly struggling New York Knicks might have reason to hope for a brighter future next season, Johnson sounded a similarly optimistic note on his former team:

"All the way bad." Catchy slogan for a season, huh?