Kobe Bryant to undergo surgery on injured shoulder
Photo Credit: NBA.com.
Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant was diagnosed with a torn right rotator cuff last week, but Bryant wanted to seek another opinion before making the decision to go under the knife. That decision has finally been made, as the Lakers announced Monday afternoon that Bryant would undergo surgery on the shoulder Wednesday. An official timetable will be released once the surgery occurs, but he’s going to miss the rest of the season.
Bryant suffered the injury in a 96-80 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans last Wednesday, although Baxter Holmes of ESPN Los Angeles reported the shoulder had been bothering the Lakers legend for quite some time. Amazingly enough, Bryant played a few minutes after he suffered the injury. However, he couldn’t use his right arm and exclusively used his left, even on shots.
Bryant had been showing major signs of wearing down this season, especially when he was playing over 35 minutes per game early in the year. While Bryant averaged 22.3 points before getting hurt, he shot just 37.3 percent overall and 29.3 percent from three-point land. The overall field goal percentage will be a career low by a wide margin, but that didn’t stop him from being voted an All-Star starter by the fans.
Lakers head coach Byron Scott finally realized Bryant was playing too much, and Bryant himself tried to change his game to become more of a distributor instead of spending so much energy chucking up tough shots. But even scaling everything back and giving more off days couldn’t prevent another major injury.
This is the third consecutive season in which Bryant suffered a serious injury that ended his season. He tore his Achilles at the tail end of the 2012-13 campaign, and after a grueling rehab, he played just six games last year before suffering a knee injury that knocked him out for the rest of the year.
Considering the fact that Bryant has suffered major injuries in three consecutive years, it would seem like a good time for the 36-year-old to hang it up. But there’s almost no chance that happens, as he’s too proud to go out like that. There’s also the matter of the $25 million coming his way next season.
Bryant also plans to be active in recruiting free agents to the Lakers next year, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. I’m not sure what big-name players will want to come and play with this version of Bryant, but it can’t hurt to try.
The 2014-15 Lakers are a lost cause, as they have lost eight games in a row and sit at 12-33 on the season. Things likely won’t get much better anytime soon, and people should get ready for a whole lot of Nick Young with Bryant sidelined:
Nick Young on what the Lakers must do without Kobe: “Pretty much just give me the ball and get out of the way.”
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) January 26, 2015
The positive thing about all this is that Los Angeles will almost certainly keep its first-round draft pick in 2015, instead of conveying it to the Phoenix Suns. As long as the pick is in the top five, the Lakers get to keep it.
So feel free to do a lot of betting against Los Angeles.
