As you might have been able to gather from this clever headline, there was an issue with Kobe Bryant's finger that occurred early on in the Lakers' win over the Cavs. Not even a minute into the contest, Kobe was holding his shooting hand and motioning to the bench after reaching to try to steal the ball from LeBron James. It looked like something serious.
Thankfully for the Lakers, it wasn't.
But it was a nasty dislocation, something that required the team's trainer to pop it back into place, which obviously wasn't comfortable for the reigning MVP.
“It was really, really painful,” said Bryant. “If [team trainer] Gary told me to get off the court, I would have,” Bryant explained. “Gary just popped it back into place, and then I was OK. It was just a normal finger.”
“I couldn’t get a good feel for my stroke, so I’m going to have to get in the gym a little bit, shoot and adjust my stroke a little bit,” Bryant added.
You may recall that Kobe suffered an injury to his pinky on the same hand last season, one that was supposedly going to require surgery. Kobe played the rest of the regular season, playoffs, and Finals with the injury, before helping the USA team bring home the gold medal in Beijing. By then it was almost time for training camp, and since Kobe didn't want to miss any time, well, he just never had the surgery.
Besides being one of the best players in the NBA, Kobe is also one of the most dedicated and one of the toughest. Considering the fact that the X-rays were negative, there's virtually no chance that he'll miss any time due to the injured finger.
