With the news Thursday that Steve Nash is out for the season with a chronic back injury, the plot surrounding the Lakers and Kobe Bryant thickened considerably.

Nash, 40, tried gallantly to stay on the floor the past two seasons in LA, but was never able to shake a series of back and leg injuries that sabotaged what undoubtedly was to have been his 19th and final NBA season. Father Time, as in all cases, won.

So what now for Bryant and the Lakers?

The unraveling of the trade that sent Nash from Phoenix to LA in 2012, supposedly to win a championship with Bryant and Dwight Howard, will linger as a storyline well into the season -- and beyond. The Lakers gave up their 2013 and 2015 first-round picks, the latter being top-five protected, plus two second-round picks. LA still owes Orlando a 2017 first-round pick from the Howard trade.

Bryant, meanwhile, has been set up as the fall guy for the Lakers' failings. As he attempts to come back at age 36 after a torn Achilles' tendon in 2013 and a fractured kneecap that kept him out of all but six games last season, he is the highest-paid player in the NBA at $23.5 million this season. It's the first year of a two-year, $48.5 million extension he signed in 2013.

Once Howard left and Bryant went down again last December, it became clear that the Lakers were entering a rebuilding period. Nash's unfortunate decline was just another heap of dirt on the Lakers' bleak future. At best, the Lakers are now mired in a two-year transition period until 2016, when Bryant presumably will be retired and the Lakers will have tens of millions in cap room to lure Kevin Durant and others.

So what's the point of having Bryant on the books at a max number for the next two seasons when the Lakers clearly are headed straight for the lottery -- and when their 2015 first-round pick will go to Phoenix unless it's in the top five?

We discussed this and more on Doug Gottlieb's radio show on CBS Sports Radio Thursday as we previewed a long-form story on Bryant's last stand. The story will be published Friday on CBSSports.com. 

In an exclusive interview, Bryant discussed his latest comeback, his uncertain future and his acceptance that there are no guarantees that his body won't let him down again. Obsessed with the process of chasing championships for so long, Bryant now is relegated to a one-man show in Lakerland, with the very real possibility that he is doomed to an inglorious ending.

As he nears the end, Bryant spoke about how he doesn't want the kind of elaborate sendoff that Derek Jeter enjoyed with the Yankees.

"I'd rather have my last year be like any other year," Bryant said. "I sincerely and truly appreciate the boos and the heckling, because those are going to be memories that I'll take with me forever. Then, at the end, when it's all said and done and the Hall of Fame comes around, that'd be nice to have that appreciation then. But I'd much rather feel the realness of it."

Bryant's 19th season, his next attempt at a comeback, got another dose of reality Thursday when he learned that the point guard who was supposed to help him hoist the Lakers' 17th championship banner probably will never play again.

Bryant, the five-time champion, is now left to be fueled by his own curiosity about how much game he has left. He's played in Hollywood for 18 years, after all. Sometimes, the script changes.

Kobe Bryant and the Lakers won't have Steve Nash on the court for 2014-15. (USATSI)
Kobe Bryant and the Lakers won't have Steve Nash on the court for 2014-15. (USATSI)