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Kobe Bryant leaves game with sore right Achilles, remains achy

Kelly Dwyer
Kobe works through the pain. (Getty Images)
Kobe works through the pain. (Getty Images)

It’s not that Achilles. You get two of them, and Kobe Bryant has already torn the left one.

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No, it’s the right one this time. Only tendonitis, but enough pain for the guy that famously swished two free throws with a torn Achilles to leave a game. Bryant had to step out of Tuesday’s rare Los Angeles Lakers win with pain in that right Achilles, the understandable result of a long and storied career that began 19 and a half years ago.

Kobe scored seven points on 3-of-9 shooting in just under 16 minutes against New Orleans, missing all five of his three-pointers, before leaving the contest with two and a half minutes to play. He had disclosed the Achilles soreness to the Laker medical team and coaching staff prior to the contest, but wanted to gut it out.

Bryant was unavailable to media following the game. Coach Byron Scott, via Broderick Turner at the Los Angeles Times, was:

"I had a talk with him before about that and he was like, 'I got to play,' because people are buying tickets to see him play," Scott said. "He feels a little bit of a responsibility to go out there and try and perform. So I think that does play into his decision as far as playing. I told him it shouldn't. But I understand where he's coming from."

For those Laker fans that bought the tickets, it really was the worst of three different worlds.

Los Angeles won the game, which is always fun, but that W also hurt the team’s lottery chances as the struggling Pelicans (who have now lost four straight) dove four and a half games closer to Los Angeles in the chase for the league’s second worst record. The reeling Brooklyn Nets, working with the third-worst record, are now just two games up on Los Angeles. Infamously, the Lakers will lose their first round draft pick in this year’s selection process if lottery odds knock them out of the top three.

Secondly, though scoring guard Lou Williams was the key factor behind the win (scoring nine points in the final frame), rookie D’Angelo Russell sat the last seven minutes of the contest. Russell managed five points on 2-3 shooting in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, but was yanked in favor of a Williams/Jordan Clarkson backcourt.

It would have been nice to see Russell get some development minutes, even in a small lineup, and learning how to close out games. Lou Williams shouldn't really factor into Los Angeles’ future, but this is how Byron Scott operates. Not bloody well.

Third? Only 15 minutes for Kobe (who is also suffering from a sore shoulder, the same one he separated last season), and it’s unclear if he’ll be able to suit up for Thursday’s nationally televised contest against Golden State.

Then again: TNT airing, defending champs, a stadium full of fans, and a chance to go up against the reigning MVP? The guy who once attended his basketball camp?

We’re pretty sure Kobe will give it a go.

UPDATE: This is going exactly how you think it's going.

 

 

So, yeah. If Byron Scott really wants to see Kobe go out the way he should go out, in April? He should sit the guy in January. In Nov. 2013, however, this ceased to be a basketball team.

The Lakers are in the entertainment business. To a degree, all sports teams are, but the Lakers are truly the Globetrotters at this point. They signed Kobe to a massive contract extension just to keep TV numbers afloat (which has not worked), and to make their buddy (Jim Buss: "Kobe and I text all the time! I could call him right now!") happy by sticking as the league's highest-paid player. We're 17 years removed from the time Kobe Bryant voted against the NBA playing basketball for a season because he was pouting over not being able to be the league's highest-paid player, mind you.

Byron Scott is bad at coaching, but this isn't an example of such because he is not in charge. Kobe Bryant is in charge, and if Kobe wants to gut through a game on national TV, nobody is going to be able to stop him. Not the trainer that Kobe has known since he was 18, not his coach, not his general manager, and not the supposed president of basketball operations.

This isn't a criticism of either Bryant or Scott, as it's Kobe's body and he knows more than anyone that the league's second-worst team is an ovation-draw above all else. Let the guy work as he sees fit, Lakers. It's never stopped you before.

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Kelly Dwyer

is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!