Los Angeles Lakers Guard Kobe Bryant (24)
Bryant is at the fifth spot with $61.5 million earnings. He signed a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers worth $48.5 million in November 2013. Bryant also has sponsor deals with Nike, Lenovo, Turkish Airlines, Hublot, and Panini. Reuters/Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA

The driver of the dilapidated Los Angeles Lakers vehicle is willing to take the back seat. Kobe Bryant offered an interesting explanation why is he taking upon himself to shoot the Lakers back or out of basketball games.

The storied franchise is mired in an embarrassing start to the season at 1-9 and at the bottom of ultra-competitive Western Conference. Front and centre is the five-time NBA champion Bryant who is second in the league in scoring on abysmal percentages. The former MVP is averaging 27.3 points per game just behind a shade of LeBron James' 27.8 scoring average; however, he is shooting at a voluminous 24 field goal attempts per game at just 37 percent. Bryant explained his mindset after a 44-point outburst against Golden State that still resulted to a 21 point loss.

"I'm more than willing to sit back. If you think I want to shoot as many times or as be as aggressive at 36 years old, you're freaking crazy," Bryant told the LA Times.

The future Hall of Famer took full responsibility for the early failures of the Lakers and expounded that maybe he was being "too aggressive." He also bared that despite the team surrendering a league high 112 points per game to their opponents, coach Byron Scott has a mapped out defensive plan. The only problem is before they can set out the plan, the other team has already launched a shot or deterred the scheme altogether.

The Lakers would have to find the answer soon or they could just miss more games and look forward to next season, Kobe's last. Analysts are speculating the team is secretly tanking the season to ensure a top five pick. The Phoenix Suns will be gifted the 2015 Lakers pick if it falls out of the top five, part of the Steve Nash exchange years back. Nevertheless, the team cannot be faulted for trying to land marquee players. The team offered a considerable salary to all-star big man Pau Gasol only to watch him transfer to the Chicago Bulls. They were also unfortunate to land any of the prized free agents in Chris Bosh, LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony, which somewhat relegated the team to a team of cast-offs and waiver wire signings.