Is Kobe Bryant Making the Right Decision?

As Kobe Bryant built a great body of work last season worthy of MVP honors, we heard this echo out of LA all season long.

An echo that seemingly gave an excuse to someone who didn't even remotely need one.

An excuse that naysayers denounced, and followers used as MVP-fuel. That echo was the torn ligament in the right pinkie finger of Kobe Bryant.

Every time 24 elevated to shoot, we wondered if the pain in his finger was throwing his shot off. Lakers fans cringed at the possibility that Kobe could miss 8-12 weeks from surgery, and Laker nation held their breaths.

Despite the apparent risks and pain that the finger would cause, Kobe decided to play through the injury throughout the season, playoffs, Finals AND the Olympics.

One wouldn't be hard-pressed to wonder, is that finger bad as we initially thought?

Could Bryant really play upwards of 75 games with a very painful injury?

It's not my call, but it seems rather peculiar to me.

Most of the season Kobe promised the Laker faithful that he would wait until after the season and Olympics to get surgery on the finger.

If you were like me, you wondered how he would fit that in after the Olympics and be ready for the start of the season?

It seems that Kobe wondered that too, and as a result announced this week that he would forgo pinkie surgery and start the season with the Lakers.

Huh?

As if it wasn't weird that he could go through the whole season without surgery last year, and he's going to do it again?

Either he's making a mistake or that pinkie isn't bad as we thought.

As San Diego Chargers LB Shawne Merriman showed us, some injuries can't be played through. Yes, Merriman's injury is much more serious and career threatening, but in basketball a shooter like Kobe needs that right hand.

The pinkie finger guides the basketball when elevating for shots, and if its too painful, shots may not release properly from Kobe's hand.

If it were his left hand, then maybe it wouldn't be much of an issue at all since most of his shots come from his right hand.

If his shooting hand is that injured, why would he play another 82-game season and presumably the playoffs on it? What if it gets too bad during the season and he has to get surgery during a playoff run?

The Lakers are the LA Clippers without KB24.

In Kobe's defense, he did shoot 46 percent from the field last season, in comparison to 46 percent the year before. Also, Bryant shot 36 percent from three-point land last season, which was his third-highest percentage in his NBA career.

From that standpoint, it seems as though Mr. Bryant did quite fine with that pinkie injury.

The problem that may haunt him is that the finger has went through so much contact and use, and could potentially get a lot worse throughout next season.

Why not get the surgery in September, miss the entire pre-season in October and most of November, come back in December completely healthy and ready to get the Lakers back on track?

He would've returned around early December, and the Lakers would have played about 16 games without him.

With Pau Gasol, a healthy Andrew Bynum and the veteran Derek Fisher at the point, the Lakers would at least win 6-8 of those games, and hover around .500 when Kobe returned.

Instead, Bryant elects to wait out the finger and risk possibly injuring it at a much worse, crucial time.

Through it all, no comments from Phil or the Lakers coaching staff and no opinions from any doctors. It all smells like a dead fish in the water to me.

As it stands, the Lakers will be with their superstar at the beginning of the 2008-09 season for a potential title-run.

Considering the circumstances, I have to wonder, at what cost?