Kobe Bryant: Black Mamba's Wrist Injury Puts Lakers on Brink of Chaos

The Los Angeles Lakers seem to be the NBA's answer to Job. Bad things keep happening to them, and it's not fair.

We all know everything there is to know about the failed Chris Paul trade and the subsequent epic fail that was the Lamar Odom trade, so I'm not going to bother going into the nitty-gritty about how badly both developments screwed the Lakers.

And no, I'm not going to go into Kobe Bryant's divorce, either.

I do, however, want to talk about Kobe Bryant's wrist. It's far more relevant, and far more concerning for the Lakers.

In the event that you're just now joining us, it was revealed on Wednesday that Kobe sustained a torn lunotriquetral ligament in his right wrist on Monday night during the Lakers' exhibition against the Los Angeles Clippers. 

The good news, per the Los Angeles Times, is that Kobe is day-to-day, and the general thinking is that he will be good to go when the Lakers open their 2011-2012 season against the Chicago Bulls on Christmas Day. He may have to play through some pain, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for Kobe.

Regardless, Christmas Day is when we're going to know for sure just how bad Kobe is hurt, not to mention whether he really can play through the pain.

All the while, every Laker fan under the sun should be sitting on the edge of his or her seat. Things are going to be tense.

The hope, obviously, is that Kobe will show no ill effects. He'll knock down shots, throw down dunks and do other typical Kobe Bryant things. If that's the way things pan out, the Lakers are going to be just fine.

The worst-case scenario is pretty bad. We could find out that Kobe simply can't shoot with his damaged wrist, in which case he may have to take a seat for a few games (or more) to let it heal.

There's an even worse worst-case scenario, and that one involves Kobe hurting his wrist even more. That would surely mean a long absence, during which the Lakers would have to tough it out without him.

Things are going to be hard enough for the Lakers with a healthy Kobe. He's getting older, and the team around him is weaker than all of us are used to, them included.

The point is debatable, but even the Clippers seem to be a better team. And even if they are not, there are a handful of teams in the Western Conference that are stronger and deeper than the Lakers.

With or without Kobe, the Lakers are good enough to compete. But anything less than a championship simply won't do in Laker Land, and the second it becomes apparent that a championship may not be in the cards, the natives tend to get restless.

It doesn't help that things are already tense in Laker Land. Thanks in large part to their own mistakes (see Odom, Lamar), the Lakers have put themselves in a volatile situation, and any further harm visited on Kobe could prove to be the last straw.

Either way, it won't be boring. I guess that's something.