Bryant still believes the Lakers will have a chance to capture another title

Kobe Bryant said that he is weeks away from his return. The Black Mamba won't play the next two games of the Lakers and needs more workouts before hitting again the court. Bryant spoke also about his new contract and the future of the franchise saying that this may be his last contract.

Per ESPN, Kobe Bryant said he is still "probably weeks" away from making his return to game action after being sidelined for more than seven months, but feels grateful to the Los Angeles Lakers for signing him to a contract extension while he is still recovering from his Achilles injury.
It makes me want to run through a wall for them," Bryant said in his first public comments since signing a two-year, $48.5 million deal with the Lakers on Monday. "It kind of just adds more fuel to the fire of being able to come out and kind of prove to everybody that [the Lakers] are right and everybody else is wrong."
"I've been fortunate," Bryant said. "I've been very, very lucky. Very blessed. It's very hard in terms of cap restrictions and things of that nature for a group of players to stay together for a long period of time, or one player to stay with one team for a long period of time. You just don't see it that often. So I feel very, very blessed and very fortunate to be a Laker for life."
"I need some more practices to kind of be able to measure it and test it and some of the limitations that I had in the first couple of practices, kind of come back and see if they're still there, if they're not," Bryant said.
Bryant doesn't just want to practice and play, of course. He wants a chance to contend for a championship. Bryant still believes the Lakers will have a chance to capture another title -- his sixth -- before he retires after what he said will "probably" be his last season in 2015-16.
"We have the opportunity to do that," Bryant said when asked if the Lakers could contend with a core of him, a re-signed Pau Gasol and another max-level free agent. "I don't even know legally what I'm allowed to say and not say in terms of impending free agents and things like that, so I'll kind of stay away from that, but we have the ability to do something special."
Bryant said he is aware of some of the backlash he is receiving from fans who feel like he accepted too much money on his deal, thus hampering the Lakers' ability to build around him through free agency.
"They're fans and they have good intentions and kind of a good spirit about it, but I don't think they understand the cap or what strategically they're trying to do better than the Lakers do," Bryant said. "So, I think we'll be alright."
He also said he didn't have any sort of ultimatum for the deal to go through before his return.
"The amount of love and respect that I have for the Buss family and the Lakers organization trumps anything else that I wanted," Bryant said. "I just wanted to come out and play. If they wanted to wait and see how I played, that's fine."
Bryant, who conceded that the figure he will receive accounts for "work previously done," expressed how much he believes in the value of deal for both sides nonetheless by using his trademark sarcasm.
"I think it's lucky for me and for the Lakers organization that this smart decision that they've made business-wise can't be revoked by the NBA," Bryant said, referring to the failed trade that nearly brought Chris Paul to the Lakers several seasons ago.