Kobe unafraid of hand-to-hand combat
February 18th, 2008, 3:50 pm · 6 Comments · posted by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
EL SEGUNDO — Can’t ever say Kobe Bryant won’t sacrifice his body for his game.
In fact, a lot of times he has tasted his blood from some sort of on-court scrape and redoubled his efforts because it stirs up something deep inside him. This situation with torn ligaments in the pinky finger of his shooting hand seems a little different because it is a real injury, not just a temporary problem. But Bryant still doesn’t see it as such a huge deal.
He said he’ll have to be wary of getting the finger caught on someone’s arm or jammed by the ball, and Phil Jackson said it’ll bother Bryant more on defense (when trying to use his hands to stay with a guy) than on offense. But the bottom line is that Bryant doesn’t expect to be much less efficient than normal, saying: “I’ve been playing with it hurt the past six games. … After that (struggle for the first two games after injuring it), doing treatment and taping it the right way, I felt fine.”
Asked about opponents deliberately hacking at the finger, Bryant said: “If these were the 1980s, I’d be worried about it. But I’m not worried about it now.”
February 18th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I think Kobe feels that if he can play effectively, not necessarily spectacularly, he can guide this team to the championship.
February 18th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I can’t really fathom the determination of Kobe’s will to play hurt, but i must admit that he really is a determined ball player because he knows the importance of him playing alongside his young teammates.
February 19th, 2008 at 2:41 am
I sure Hope that Kobe Can do this…If he dose not get the MVP this year….
There is something wrong someplace…I don’t think anybody
can say that there is a better player then KOBE…I mean “all Around”.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:49 am
I was reading a comment in another newspaper story of Kobe’s injury and the writer mentioned that Kobe seems to have an incredibly low pain threshold and the ‘old time’ players wouldn’t make such a deal of this.
A) Have they ever heard of Magic Johnson who was notorious for his low pain threshold?
B) Kobe haters will go to about any lengths to spit out venom.
People seem to feel sports figures should die before they disappoint the fans or team. It says a lot about our evolution as a species when our comments seem to mimic what the Roman gladiators faced in their arenas.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:29 am
During the all star break Charles Barkley again showed us why he should be given the jerk of the year award. When asked who he picked to win the west he said Utah because no one else was picking them and because “his prayers had been answered with Kobe’s hand injury and Bynums knee cap injury. Be careful what you pray for Chuck.
An injured Kobe has proven to be a dangerous Kobe. If Bynum comes back in time to get ready for the playoffs they may just make you eat those words.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I’m a Kobe fan, and I think that most objective NBA experts and fans would agree that questioning Kobe’s heart and “warrior” mentality is just ridiculous.
With that said, I wish Kobe would stop saying things to make a big deal about playing with this injury. When he says things like that, it makes it seem like he is trying to draw attention to it on purpose — as if he wants people to acknowledge that he plays through injuries. All that does is to cheapen what he is in fact doing.
The latest quote that made me sigh was when Bryant alluded to Mel Gibson’s portrayal in the movie “Braveheart,” saying simply: “I’ll get my William Wallace on.” Dude, just say, “It is a tough injury, but given where the team is right now, I am going to try to play through it and hope it does not get worse.” Just leave it at that.