Lakers have team player in Kobe

Kobe cares.

He could have sat out until Christmas, nursing an injured pinkie that required surgery, but instead he’ll be out there practicing and playing with his team. He’ll be out there being the leader they need him to be.

He could have said to the Lakers look man, I’ve had a long summer—traveled to China, played in the Olympics and before that led this team to the NBA finals. I’m tired, dog tired. Let me rest for a little while. When the season gets serious, I’ll be there.

The Lakers would have let him do it. They would have had too. Who wants to tell Kobe Bryant he can’t have surgery now because he waited too long? Who wants to be that person to say sorry dude, you shouldn’t have played in the Olympics? No one’s going to say that, which is why Kobe cares.

He could have taken that road. He could have taken the time off. He could have opted for the surgery. Everyone could see how the pinkie affected him during the playoffs last season. He winced every time someone slapped at the ball. Kobe Bryant played hurt last season—and led his team to the brink of a championship.

He didn’t take them all the way. He still couldn’t do it without Shaq, but Kobe has already one-upped Shaq in the team player department. There’s a big difference between Shaq and Kobe and now we’re starting to see the difference.

Both will be remembered fondly in a Lakers uniform, but Kobe will be remembered with more admiration than Shaq. At first that didn’t seem possible. Kobe seemed like the selfish one, the arrogant one. Shaq appeared to be the humble one. The team player. The jovial one. But when Shaq needed toe surgery before the 2002-03 season, he chose to have it. No one questioned that he needed it, but they questioned why he waited. Why wait this long when you could have done it right after last season, they said?

But the big fella needed some extra time off. Some believed he wanted it — like how Ron Artest wanted to take a month off before Christmas to promote his record label. Shaq wanted the same thing. He just had a better method with which to seek that time and now it’s become an annual thing. He sits out most of November and December and isn’t taking it seriously until February. The Suns are going to find that out this year. The Heat quickly learned about it. That year, it was the same thing. The only counterpoint to it is that on the court it didn’t seem to matter. The Lakers won their third consecutive championship that year, but off the court the chemistry faltered. It all came to a head next season. The season Phil Jackson published as The Last Season.

By not having surgery, Kobe’s telling his team he’ll be there. Yea, I’m Kobe Bryant, he said, but I’m not too good to play games in November and December. This is a special team, he said, and we’ll need chemistry to win. We’ll need to play together. You can pass me the ball and I’ll pass you the ball. We’ll need to like each other. Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, we’re one.

Kobe cares.

He cares so much that people are actually going to forget that little incident in Colorado a few years ago — or at least it’s not going to be the first thing they think about when they see him. Well, the men there anyway.

Kobe Bryant is going to play team ball, he’s going to do all the good things people think he should.

We’ll see if it will pay off. We’ll see if Kobe will have will have to make reservations to tell Shaq how his ass tastes.