Kobe Bryant has ignored his ever-thickening medical file, playing through a broken finger, strained elbow, back spasms and, most recently, a sprained left ankle.
But it might be time for him to sit a game or two, a thought that crossed Phil Jackson’s mind while the Lakers’ coach watched him hobble around the court Wednesday against the Charlotte Bobcats.
“It occurred to me yesterday during the course of that game,” Jackson said a day after Bryant had only five points, his lowest total since a January 2005 game against Cleveland in which he scored two points before being carried off the court because of a severely sprained ankle.
via Phil Jackson ponders resting Kobe Bryant because of injuries – latimes.com.
The hubris is stunning.What, the broken finger, back spasms, cold, flue, and other ailments weren’t enough? What’s it going to take to hold the man out?
I say this in all honesty: I am stunned at Bryant’s performance this season. He’s not just “banged up.” The man is basically a car crash victim. And he’s pouring in points, still! Yes, he’s shooting too much, but can you blame him with the way Pau’s turned back into Dairy Queen Sunday Special, Odom’s MIA, and Bynum still has days he doesn’t know where he’s at? He’s the offense. So he’s taking shots. He needs to recognize when to go to his teammates and say “You need to take the ball and score, because my FINGER IS BROKEN. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? FINGER! BROKEN! YOU! SCORE!” But I can’t fault the guy. Who I can fault? The guy everyone’s falling over to anoint as he runs the second best player in the league into the ground.
Jackson always takes the long-view, the “none of this matters until the playoffs” approach. This team can win without the top seed, they don’t need homecourt. So why on Earth is he not going to his star player, who he knows so well, and saying “You’re sitting. You’re sitting now, and the All-Star game, and that’s it.” I’m sure the league would be very upset if Kobe didn’t play. But they’d be more upset if his body ends up having more severe problems and it impacts him in May.
Besides, wouldn’t shutting him down force the rest of the Lakers to step up? Wouldn’t it make it so Pau’s got to man-up, Odom’s got to wake-up, Bynum’s got to get up, and Artest has to… well, Artest is doing okay and not eating people, so I think he’s fine. Taking Kobe out isn’t going to develop a new alpha dog. It’s just going to teach the rest of the pack to hunt without him. Then when he’s health, he’ll be ready to take over and do what’s important: win the title. If there’s anything we learned from last season, it’s that LeBron can have February as long as Kobe gets June.
Shut him down.
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Calling out Pau seems misguided. He’s still a force on the block (and an All Star), he’s just not getting enough touches. Yes, Kobe’s shooting too much. That’s obvious if you watch the games. Lots of one-on-one at the end of shot clocks.
In terms of the importance of the regular season, Phil and Kobe both know how important home court is. Kobe won’t rest much, no matter how beat up he is.
I agree Kobe should sit: given how tough he is and how fanatical about rehab and working out and all that, a few games off is probably enough. I’m not sure Phil should be blamed, though: Kobe probably insists on playing, and you have to pick your spots as a coach to bring the hammer down, with your superstar.
Maybe its part of Phil’s coaching philosophy to let players figure it out on their own. Part of me thinks Phil probably does have a feeling Kobe may break down by the playoffs, and not winning the title might be the revelation Kobe needs.
We’re forgetting that, for everything that happened in the last two years, this is still Kobe we are talking about. His attitude hasn’t changed. He’s still doing things on his own terms. Having dealt with Kobe for about a decade, Phil knows he’s not going to get Kobe to sit. Kobe could be missing an arm, and he would still be playing.
Part of it is admirable. We bash a guy like Vince Carter for milking the smallest of injuries, so we should be praising Kobe for playing through all these issues. Then again, the other part of me is thinking his playing through all these injuries is stupid and unnecessary. But, like I said earlier, its Kobe. And Kobe is going to do what Kobe wants to do.
Great post – couldn’t agree more. Completely proven true by tonight’s Laker win in Portland sans Kobe.
Odom, Artest and Shannon Brown all stepped up big time.
As far as Pau goes…still waiting for him to man-up like you say. He asks for more shots, but then even without Kobe he doesn’t find a way to assert himself (and don’t forget Bynum was limited to 10 minutes due to injury).