NEW ORLEANS — This city has since conjured up more memories for Lakers coach Byron Scott beyond the tasty seafood, the festive jazz music, his initial success with this franchise and his unceremonious firing.
With Kobe Bryant playing when the Lakers (10-41) visit the New Orleans Pelicans (18-30) tonight at Smoothie King Center, Scott also remembers vividly Bryant tore the rotator cuff in his right shoulder here about a year ago. But before realizing Bryant would need season-ending surgery, he tried to play through it. On Jan. 21, 2015, Bryant drove past Pelicans forward Dante Cunningham along the baseline and finished with a dunk. Bryant soon grabbed his right shoulder and believed he just suffered a stinger.
“You all right?” Scott recalled asking Bryant after morning shootaround on Thursday.
“My shoulder is a little messed up, but I have my left hand,” Scott remembered Bryant saying. “I have another hand. With how tough he is, he said I’m good.”
But Scott then reported Lakers trainer Gary Vitti quickly said, “No, get him out.” So Bryant sat with 4:15 remaining in the third quarter to ice his shoulder. After both Bryant and the Lakers sensed improvement, Bryant reentered the game with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. But Bryant discovered he could not use his right shoulder.
“His thing was, ‘It’s hurt, but I got another [shoulder],'” Scott reported Bryant thinking. ‘”I’m okay.'”
So Bryant used his left hand the rest of the game. He dribbled only using that left hand. He converted on a left-handed turnaround jumper. Bryant then made a left-handed hook shot. But Bryant airballed his second left hook attempt. Vitti then went to Scott on the sideline.
“We have to get you out,” Scott recalled telling Bryant.
So Bryant sat for the remaining 1:09 of the Lakers’ eventual loss to New Orleans. Afterwards, the Lakers determined Bryant had aggravated his shoulder, but would need to be reevaluated the following day in San Antonio. Bryant sounded defiant to reporters, insisting he would not have to miss any more games.
“With [Kobe], I’m hurt but I’m not hurt,” said Scott, who played 11 of his 14 NBA seasons with the Lakers. “We always had the rule as older guys as, ‘You’re either injured or you’re hurt.’ Which one are you? If you’re injured, you can probably play through it. If you’re hurt, let’s sit down. He’s never had that mindset. His mindset is, ‘I might be hurt, but if it’s my left hand, I can use my right. If it’s my right hand, I can use my left. If it’s my left ankle, I’ll compensate a little bit and be okay.'”
Bryant was not okay. The Lakers determined he would need season-ending surgery, leaving Bryant with only a 35-game sample size to play in the 2014-15 season. That injury also marked the third consecutive time Bryant suffered a season-ending ailment.
Yet, Bryant did not have surgery until a week later so he could explore various medical options. During that time, Scott reported that Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak informed him about Bryant doing something peculiar at the team’s practice facility a couple of days before his shoulder surgery.
“Mitch called me and said, ‘I’m looking at Kobe down there and he’s shooting jump shots,” Scott said. “Mitch goes out and sees him and Kobe is looking at him like, ‘See? I can play’ without saying it. That’s him.”
Bryant quickly learned otherwise.
“He didn’t want to [have surgery], but obviously the doctors said you have to have this done,” Scott said. “That’s how tough he is, physically as well as mentally. He’s one of those guys talking to Gary when it comes to pain, his threshold is off the charts.”
So much that when the Lakers’ training staff determined that Bryant would need to rehab his shoulder between six to nine months, Scott said that Bryant predicted he could return in five months.
That prompted Scott to laugh about Bryant’s competitive nature. But it was hardly a laughing matter when Bryant injured his shoulder and realized his skill and pain threshold could not overcome his latest setback. After all, Scott had expressed remorse that playing Bryant an average of 34.5 minutes per game could have contributed to his injury, an issue both Bryant and the Lakers downplayed.
“It catches up to you. You can will yourself to a point where there is no will you have in you because your body is telling you, ‘No you can’t,'” Scott said. “With him, that’s been his mental capacity. I’m never hurt.”
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