Kobe's decision is selfless, but is it smart?
You can call Kobe Bryant anything you want, but you can drop all this selfish stuff about him being more important than the team. And you can even take it a step further as he proves he is far more willing to stick himself out there for his teammates than Shaquille O'Neal ever was.
Tuesday on his website kb24.com, Bryant addressed the topic of the damaged ligament in his right pinkie finger that has needed surgery since Feb. 5. Doctors told him it will take up to three months to heal, so Bryant has opted again not to have it repaired — just as he did more than seven months ago and after the Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in the Finals in June.
Wrote Bryant, "When the doctors told me recovery from a procedure could be 12 weeks, I just decided now was not the time to have surgery. What it really came down to for me is that I just didn't want to miss any time 'punching the clock' for the Lakers, given all we are trying to accomplish as a team this NBA season."
If he were to have surgery this week, he would likely miss at least the first month of the regular season, which begins Oct. 28 for the Lakers. And keep in mind, Bryant still played in all 82 regular-season games and 21 playoff games despite the injury during the Lakers' 2007-08 march through the Western Conference. He averaged 30.1 points during the playoffs after a regular-season average of 28.3, as the Lakers surprisingly won the conference title.
As if that weren't enough, he was a significant factor for the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team as well, electing to put off surgery until he had a chance to play for his country. Now he's eschewing surgery again, and you have to wonder why. Is it purely cosmetic, so he doesn't care? There has been no indication he is risking disfiguration, and it obviously hasn't caused a significant dropoff in his productivity.
Instead, this just further establishes the commitment that the 30-year-old Bryant has to winning a title with the Lakers. Last year at this time, he was screaming to anyone within earshot that he wanted out. The Lakers weren't willing to do what it takes to compete for a title by adding talent, so he wanted to be somewhere else.
Calmly, coolly, general manager Mitch Kupchak kept working the phones, then convinced Bryant that any place he got traded would have to give up too many players just to get him, so it was a fruitless tirade. Finally, in February, Kupchak hijacked Pau Gasol from Memphis and the Lakers ran away with the Pacific Division and nosed out the New Orleans Hornets for the top seed in the West.
All the while, Bryant had transformed from the petulant superstar into the team leader. He embraced Gasol and the young players. The injury wasn't even much of a consideration in the daily routine, let alone a factor in his high-level performance.
And this may very well be the biggest difference of all when comparing Bryant and O'Neal, his former teammate. All anybody has to do is think back to the Lakers' run of titles from 2000-02, and consider that in the summer of 2002, O'Neal waited three months before he had surgery on his toe. When asked about it, he said he needed three opinions.
He never explained why it required three months to get three opinions other than he didn't want to spoil his vacation.
O'Neal missed all of training camp and a month of the regular season, Bryant had to carry the load, developed tendinitis in his knee, and the Lakers didn't make it back to the Finals that season.
So as history continues to re-write itself in Lakers lore regarding who was responsible for the demise of the three-peat team from 2000-02, and whether it was really Bryant or O'Neal at the heart of the selfish tug-of-war for the most credit, this week's revelation of Bryant's priorities may very well close the book.
Unless he catches his finger in it and can't play anymore.
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