Nearly every part of the human body comes into play during a normal 48-minute basketball game. Limbs are used to run, catch, and shoot. Fingers control a players’ grip on a basketball, joints allow for mobility, and flexibility. Underneath the skin, muscles produce force and cause motion, ligaments join one bone to another bone, and tendons join muscle to bone.
They’re all very intricate parts, each performing an essential function when a player drives through traffic, squares his body to the basket, elevates over a defender, and aligns the basketball to the basket. If something goes, so too does the player’s ability to perform at the level s/he’s expected, let alone a high one.
Enter Kobe Bryant.
With all the injuries he’s sustained over the course of his career, you’d suppose at 33 years old and with close to 48,838 minutes of basketball under his belt (according to Basketball-Reference.com), that Bryant is no longer capable of scoring more than 40 points on any given night. Now consider he’s scored 40 points during the last four consecutive game nights. The guy absolutely chooses to disregard pain, much in the same way Lakers fans disregard the Clipper Nation.
Bryant’s drive and desire to win acts like an anesthetic, numbing his pain. Phil Jackson even said that out of all the players he had coached—Michael Jordan included—no one had a greater ability to play while injured than Bryant. Really his uniqueness among great players isn’t just his desire to be the best and play under any circumstance, but more so his adaptability to playing with injury.
We can all marvel at the level of play Bryant exerts now, despite back-to-back games, misaligned fingers, and a wrist that swells on a nightly basis, but take a look back and you’ll find, Kobe playing through his injuries is nothing new.
Broken left wrist, September 1996
Fresh out of high school, a then 18-year-old Bryant took to the streets of Venice Beach to quench his thirst for competition. Unfortunately, he lost his balance going for a rebound, breaking his left wrist in the process. Even then the training staff could see Bryant’s drive downplay his injured state. Instead of needing to be pushed post-surgery, they had to hold him back. If he couldn’t run drill sets with the rest of the team, he’d simply just run to build stamina.
Broken right hand, October 1999
During the Lakers first exhibition game under the tutelage of Phil Jackson, Bryant’s hand was hit by an errant elbow in the first quarter, breaking it in the process. Sure, adrenal plays a part in masking an injury, or at the very least withstanding pain, if only for a short time. Undeterred, Bryant continued to play, and in 30 minutes accounted for 18 points, five assists, four steals, and zero turnovers. It wasn’t until two days later when Bryant complained of pain that x-rays revealed he had broken the fourth metacarpal bone in his right hand. After being sidelined for 15 games, Bryant came back to score 19 points against the Warriors.
Next: A sprained ankle couldn’t prevent Bryant from taking over during the NBA Finals.
Sprained left ankle, June 2000
Despite Bryant leaving during the first quarter of game two of the 2000 NBA finals after suffering a severe sprain, the Lakers still went on to defeat the Indiana Pacers 111-104, taking a 2-0 series lead. Bryant missed the next game, but came back atop a badly sprained ankle to carry the Lakers in a 120-118 overtime victory in game four. He scored 22 points in the second half and overtime alone, including the final six points and a blocked shot with 2:33 left to play. His heroics were a slightly bigger deal considering Shaquille O’Neal had fouled out and Bryant was literally the Lakers last hope at preventing the Pacers from tying the series two-all.
Sprained right shoulder, January 2004
On the night of Bryant’s first of many matchups against then-Cleveland Cavalier superstar LeBron James, Bryant sprained the acromio clavicular joint in his right shoulder. Although the Lakers were already without O’Neal and Karl Malone, Bryant missed six games and re-aggravated the injury upon his return against the Supersonics. The Lakers training staff believed Bryant’s injury would sideline him for at least another month, however, he took the team plane to Boston instead and played, helping the Lakers defeat the Celtics with 18 points and 10 assists.
Sprained right ankle, January 2005
Bryant had to be helped off the court after sustaining a severely sprained right ankle, the worst—as he described—he had experienced during his career up until that point. After missing nearly a month of basketball (16 games), Bryant returned and scored 26 points in a losing effort to the Cavaliers.
Sprained right pinkie, February 2008
Originally listed as a dislocated pinkie on 2/5/08, Lakers training staff found Bryant had actually sustained further damage on the pinkie days later. Tests revealed the radial collateral ligament was completely torn and he had an avulsion fracture (small fragment of bone was pulled off by a tendon). Bryant continued to play at a high level and opted not to address the injury in the off-season. He’s sense adjusted to playing with the injury, winning back-to-back titles in the process.
Back injury, Playoffs 2008
During the conference semifinals against the Utah Jazz, Bryant suffered an injury to his lower back, something he hadn’t yet experienced. He described himself as sore, stiff and tight, still Bryant left no doubt he would continue to play in game 5. He played 46-minutes, in obvious pain, and scored 26 points en route to the Lakers defeating the Jazz 111-104, taking a 3-2 series lead.
Next: Nagging injuries to his right index finger and wrist, currently hinder Bryant.
Right index finger fracture, December 2009
With only four pristine fingers left in his right hand, Bryant suffered an avulsion fracture to his right index finger, leaving him with only three on his predominant shooting hand. For a few weeks, Bryant wore a splint wrapped in tape. The splint hindered his ability to handle the ball, so he adjusted, like he always does, and simply used the tape to keep his finger aligned. It takes a long time for the bone to heal, and for Bryant, it never really did. It’s now bone-on-bone, plagued with arthritis, and will likely never be the same again.
Left ankle injury, February 2010
Bryant had played in 235 consecutive games before being sidelined with the injury to his left ankle. While he was receiving around-the-clock treatment for his bum ankle, he sat out for five games and missed the 2010 All-Star Game. He came back just in time for the Lakers matchup against the Grizzlies, scoring 32 points, including (of course) the game winner.
Left ankle/foot injury, April 2011
Taking some games off to nurse an ankle injury during the regular season is one thing, the playoffs, however, are a completely different animal. Bryant did everything from icing, electrostimulation and massage on his ankle to get it back to as close to 100-percent as possible in preparation for the Lakers’ series against the New Orleans Hornets in the first round of the playoffs. Against the wishes of the Lakers front office, Bryant declined to undergo an X-Ray or MRI to examine the gravity of the injury, but really, regardless of the diagnosis, nothing short of amputation would keep Bryant off the floor. As it turns out, he was able to pull through and in game five, he finished with 19 points on 8 of 13 shooting, in 28-minutes of play.
Right wrist injury, December 2011
During the first of two preseason games against the Los Angeles Clippers, Bryant went down and held his wrist in pain. He sat out for the second preseason game after an MRI confirmed a tear of the lunotriquetral ligament in his wrist. Basically, the ligament stabilizes two of the smaller bones on the outer part of the wrist. Bryant could’ve had surgery, but all Laker fans can take solace in the fact that the injury doesn’t actually require surgery. As of now, the bones have remained properly aligned despite the ligament tear, however, that can change in an instant. He’s received several numbing shots to the wrist, which allows him to stay on the floor, temporarily pain-free. Of course you would never guessed he was playing hurt if his wrist wasn’t tapped up, considering the offensive tear he’s been for the last two weeks of the season.