There have been knee injuries that required surgery, severely sprained ankles that took weeks to recover, and a bout with plantar fasciitis, a foot condition as ugly and painful as its name implies.
But nothing bothered Kobe Bryant as much as the dislocated finger he suffered in the Lakers' victory Monday over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Bryant said the pain in the ring finger of his right hand was "probably the most I'd ever played with," and his face contorted Tuesday afternoon as he recounted his unsuccessful attempt to steal the ball from LeBron James.
Bryant did not practice Tuesday and he was wearing a splint made of plastic, aluminum and foam. When asked if he would play tonight against the Clippers, he indicated in the affirmative, in his own way.
"What do you think?" he said.
Bryant will take part in this morning's shoot-around and determine if he needs to adjust his shot or his ballhandling to account for the discomfort. He also might experience soreness in the finger on defense, be it by hand-checking players, blocking shots or trying for steals.
"He's going to have an adjustment period to go through," Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said. "These [injuries] are things that you just don't want to do anything with that hand, let alone play basketball or pound the ball or dribble it or shoot it. It's a lot of difficulty, but it's a trademark of who Kobe is."
Said Bryant: "I'm not concerned about it. I'll figure it out."
Bryant, who also has ligament and tendon damage that typically comes with a dislocated finger, will have his right ring and pinkie fingers taped together tonight, a precaution he might have to endure the rest of the season.
"The way it hurts, I wouldn't doubt it," Bryant said.
If it seems to be a familiar injury, it is.
Bryant suffered a torn ligament in his right pinkie last season and played with two fingers taped together for months after the fact.
His injury from Monday's game was more painful than the one from last season, Bryant said, though it could have been worse.
"It's not fractured or anything like that. I'm happy," he said. "I just made a stab at the ball and I think I caught it at the right angle. I just felt it slide out of place. At that point, I felt like I had done something much worse than what actually happened."
After the injury, which occurred less than two minutes into the game, Bryant went over to the sideline, where trainer Gary Vitti popped the finger back into place.
