You think that Honda you’ve been driving since 1998 has a lot of miles on it. Kobe Bryant’s NBA knees have been banging up and down the court since just after he took Brandi to his senior prom in Philly, and the wear and tear on one knee specifically caught up with him last season. It’s a lot worse than that whizzing sound coming from your engine when you get up over sixty-five too, by the way.
After a stretch over the last few years where Kobe played into June with the Lakers, then all summer long with Team USA, only to pick back up with game one of the following season, his knee had gotten to a point of being “bone-on-bone” for much of last year. Which hurts a lot. Only now, according to what Derek Fisher told the Orange County Register yesterday, his knee is feeling as good as it has in a long time:
“Derek Fisher said Friday about teammate and pal Kobe Bryant: “He’s telling me — and I saw for myself — that his knee is the best it’s been in a long time.” Fisher said he didn’t really believe Bryant’s boasting initially, but seeing Bryant in action (photo at right) was convincing. “I saw it a little bit in Manila,” Fisher said, smiling, “so I believe it now.”
Kobe had some highlights in that Manila game to be sure (like that reverse dunk he’s about to rip off in the photo). And even with reports of him possibly signing overseas during the lockout, the regimen will be much more dialed down than in years past for Bryant. He’s coming off an innovative surgery on that right knee, and it seems like the lockout may just give him the time he would have otherwise not had for a complete recovery in anticipation of whenever next season does start. The LA Times described the surgery as follows earlier this month:
“Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has taken an unusual step to try to strengthen his ailing right knee, undergoing an innovative procedure in Germany about a month ago, according to four people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly. The treatment is a derivation of platelet-rich plasma therapy. PRP procedures are less invasive than many surgeries involving the knee and are viewed as either an emerging solution to knee problems or a financial gamble on unproven science.”
If D-Fish’s opinion means anything, the gamble is appearing to pay-off so far for Bryant, and maybe this lockout is just what Kobe needed in addition to that procedure. His team was unceremoniously discharged from the playoffs by way of a second round beat-down by the eventual champs a few months back, and I can’t imagine Kobe expects things like that to happen when he’s healthy. Who knows what he still has left in the tank if he is.
