According to team sources, The Los Angeles Lakers expect Kobe Bryant to miss the remainder of the season with a torn rotator cuff. Bryant met with team doctor Steven Lombardo in Los Angeles on Friday, and a significant tear in the rotator cuff in his right shoulder was discovered. He will take the weekend to decide whether or not he wants to undergo season-ending surgery, and will be re-examined on Monday by a different team doctor before the official decision is made.
A completely torn rotator cuff usually requires surgery and is subsequently followed by several months of rehabilitation. Bryant, who is in his 19th season, has had his previous two seasons come to an early end due to injuries. He tore his Achilles tendon in April 2013, and played in just six games last season before breaking a bone near his left knee.
Bryant suffered the tear during the second half of Wednesday night’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, apparently sustaining the injury with 4:14 left in the third quarter when he drove the baseline for a two-handed dunk.
“It felt fine when I went up, didn’t feel too good when I came down,” Bryant would later say after the game.
Bryant grabbed at his shoulder while running back down the court on defense, and checked out of the game a few minutes later.
”I said, ‘Are you all right?”’ Lakers head coach Byron Scott recalled after the game. ”He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m good, just bothering me a little bit. Once I get warmed up, I’m fine.’ After that point, I never thought about it.”
He would later return with five minutes left in game, but immediately began to favor his shoulder again. He attempted to dribble and rebound with just his left hand afterwards, and actually made a turnaround 14-foot jumper.
“Obviously after I saw that everything he did was with the left hand, I knew then, let’s get him out of there,” Scott said.
Bryant tweeted about his injury earlier on Friday:
This is what happens when I pass too much! #ShoulderShock thank u all for ur thoughts and prayers #team @DrinkBODYARMOR @Lakers #oneluv
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) January 23, 2015
Bryant, who was voted in as a Western Conference All-Star starter on Thursday night for a record 17th consecutive time, has played 35 out of 43 games with the Lakers this season, averaging 22.3 points, 5.6 assists, 5.7 rebounds, and a career-low 37.3 field goal percentage. He had missed six of the team’s last 18 games to rest, after Scott expressed his worries about playing the 36-year-old too much in the team’s early part of this season’s schedule.
Bryant, who is the NBA’s highest-paid player at $23.5 million this season, has made it known publicly that his career is in its twilight. The Lakers have said numerous times that they are determined to keep Bryant healthy for the 2015-2016 season, when he is due to make $25 million. Los Angeles has struggled in a tough Western Conference for the last two seasons, but have remained loyal to their aging superstar, who is still considered one of the most popular athletes in the world.
Scott told reporters on Friday that he fully believes that Bryant would be ok with rehabbing his shoulder for one more go next season.
“This is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever been around as far as dealing with injuries and things like that and being able to come back,” Scott said. “Everybody said he was done after the Achilles and he came back pretty strong.
“Knowing him the way I know him, I know he doesn’t want to go out this way. I think he’ll rehab it if that’s the case and then we’ll have to wait and see.”
If Kobe misses the rest of the season as expected, he will have the worst field goal percentage (37.3) in the last 50 seasons for a player averaging at least 20 points per game. The current distinction belongs to Allen Iverson, who shot a dismal 38.7 percent in 2003-04.
Although Bryant is the team’s leading scorer, the Lakers are actually 14 points per 100 possessions better with Kobe off the court this season than they are with Kobe on the court, a statistic that is no doubt a result of his poor shooting on the year. With the absence of Bryant, the Lakers will be able to give more minutes to players such as Wayne Ellington, Nick Young and Jordan Clarkson, as they evaluate their roster going forward in a season that was over by the first month.
