8 reasons why Kobe Bryant is the toughest player in NBA history

#4 2012-13 NBA season

Lakers go off the floor after a loss to the Atlanta Hawks, March 2013

Kobe's championship window had been closing slowly but surely ever since he won his first championship without Shaq. As mentioned before, he'd had multiple injuries and knocks to deal with in the very season that he won his 5th championship in the 2009-10 season, and the emergence of Miami Heat's superteam meant that the Lakers had to do something drastic in the offseason in order to surround Kobe with the requisite talent to win a championship.

Dwight Howard and Steve Nash were duly traded for, and the hype around the Lakers before the start of the 2012-13 season was about as much as it could've gotten. But they never clicked together, as both Howard and Nash had to endure extended spells on the sideline with injury. Neither of them were anything close to the products they'd been advertised before the trades, and Metta World Peace regressed pretty hard on the defensive end in the '12-13 season.

Kobe, on the other hand, was still Kobe. By still Kobe, I mean he was better than ever, as evidenced by his efficiency from the midrange - he shot 51% on 2-pointers that year, the highest percentage of his career.

In the 7 games he played before injuring his Achilles against the Warriors in one of the final games of the season (more on that later), Kobe was averaging over 40 minutes per game (highest in the NBA) and had played 7 consecutive quarters without taking a break. He pushed his body once more through all of the pain thresholds and was ultimately instrumental to the Lakers taking the 7th seed in the regular season.