The Lakers’ great expectations for the rest of this season were shaken Thursday when surgery was recommended on Kobe Bryant’s shooting hand – although he will instead attempt to play through the pain.

Bryant was diagnosed with a complete tear of the radial collateral ligament, an avulsion fracture and a volar plate injury at the MCP joint of his right pinky finger. Surgery to repair the ligament was recommended by hand specialist Steven Shin, but that would cause Bryant to miss about six weeks of action.

That would take the Lakers to just three weeks left in the regular season and certainly severely jeopardize their chances of not just achieving their goal of home-court advantage in the playoffs’ first round, but simply making the playoffs in the rugged Western Conference.

So Bryant said he will rest through the All-Star break and try to manage the injury the rest of this season and in the Olympics this summer in China before having surgery.

“My current thinking is to give my finger some treatment and rest for a few days, and hope I can still continue to compete at a high level after that rest,” Bryant said. “I would prefer to delay any surgical procedure until after our Lakers season, and this summer’s Olympic Games. But, this is an injury that myself and the Lakers’ medical staff will just have to continue to monitor on a day-to-day basis.”

The damage occurred when Bryant dislocated the finger in the Lakers’ game at New Jersey on Feb. 5 and was aggravated Wednesday night in Minnesota.

Posted in: 2007-08 • Kobe Bryant |

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