Kobe Bryant Wrist Injury: Are the Lakers Downplaying His Injury?

Understood that this year's preseason serves more as a return back to reality for the regular rotation players rather than giving time to the rookies, but there's no reason why a player like Kobe Bryant should already be injured.

In the Lakers first preseason game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Bryant went up for a dunk and had it blocked by DeAndre Jordan. Kobe landed hard on his wrist upon his descent to the hardwood and has now been diagnosed with having a torn ligament in his right wrist, which just so happens to be the wrist that Kobe shoots with.

We get that he's Kobe Bryant and can shoot with his left hand, but do you really want a 33 year old player shooting with something other than his dominant hand?

His team is already playing without any sort of bench now that Lamar Odom is gone, which means that Bryant will have to shoulder more of the scoring load. Now that he's injured his right wrist, Bryant's going to have even more trouble carrying this team to the top of the conference.

Let's not forget that Bryant also has an index finger that may never heal on his right hand as well.

While Bryant's injury has him listed as day-to-day and he is expected to start against the Chicago Bulls in the Lakers opening day matchup on Christmas, I'm a bit bewildered that something that sounds as serious as a torn ligament can only warrant a few days off of practice before he's ready to make it back to the court.

It is completely possible that the Lakers could be keeping the severity of the injury under wraps. They've always been a secretive organization that rarely allows locker room talk to go into the outside world.

Also, they may be attempting to hide Bryant's injury so that teams don't attempt to attack him and attempt to increase the severity of his already ailing wrist.

It's all speculation however, so I'll just allow an actual doctor to do the talking.

Orthoinfo.org specializes in how to treat injuries and they have a completely different story on the severity of a torn ligament. While a mild wrist sprain can be treated and healed in a few days, tearing it is a whole other ordeal. The website explains, "Moderate sprains may need to be immobilized with a wrist splint for 1 or more weeks."

Day to day for a torn ligament claimed by the Lakers, yet it takes a week or two just to heal a moderate sprain? Strange. It only gets more interesting when you take into account if Bryant suffered a severe sprain.

The website goes on to say, "Severe sprains may require surgery to repair the fully torn ligament. Surgery is followed by a period of rehabilitation and exercises to strengthen the wrist and restore motion. Although the ligament can be expected to heal in 6 to 8 weeks, rehabilitation with full recovery of motion and strength can take several months. This depends on the severity of the sprain."

I'm not a doctor, but this sounds serious and certainly doesn't sound like something that can be repaired with a few days off of practice. However, there is no word yet on the severity of the sprain, which means that we don't know if this is a microscopic tear or a severe tear that requires surgery.

The MRI has Bryant diagnosed with, "a tear of the lunotriquetral ligament, which stabilizes two of the smaller bones on the outer part of the wrist."

Keith Feder, a Manhattan Beach sports-medicine specialist, offered a clearer explanation on what he makes of Kobe's situation. He states, "Without being privy to the MRI, these types of injuries can take anywhere from several days to several weeks to heal completely. But depending on the pain level, and with support, the athlete can play."

That's a little more refreshing to hear for the Lakers, especially with a player like Bryant who is absolutely willing to play through the pain in order to finish out his Hall of Fame worthy career on a high note.

With the Clippers creeping to usurp the Pacific Division throne out from under the Lakers, Bryant is more than willing to play through a little more pain just to continue asserting his authority over the team's town rival as well as the rest of the NBA.