Kobe Bryant Says he has almost no Cartilage in his Knee

[insfo]

yep, add me to the "Un-believers" on this one. Just more drama ...

[Gus McCrae]

[droponov]

How is this any different than Brandon Roy's case or is it not?

If I remember right, it was both knees for Roy. And I would assume Kobe's injury is from logging so many minutes over the years, while Roy's just seem to be an unfortunate event cause by a prior injury or something like that.

You don't lose meniscus over "logging so many minutes". It doesn't disappear like that. Roy had several arthroscopies and menisectomies (especially lateral ones) throughout years that lead to menisci loss and eventually cartilage degeneration (due to the lack of menisci).

[yongaz]

inB4 haters say it's just an excuse.

heh seriously though, work ethic or not, I think Kobe hasn't got much left in him. This season is clear evidence of that.

I think his decline will be quite sharp next, if not the following season and he's too proud to play on so he'll retire. Here's hoping he'll win another this or next year before he does.

[Framework]

Dam does this guy go a week without complaining? From fingers to hand, it never ends with Kobe.

He drops the bait in the water, knowing his fans will use it whenever his game goes south, usually follows it up with something like 'well you know me a little pain isn't going to stop me'

Funny thing in this article is the "I love practice" quote when it's coming out he's been skipping practice all year and only recently started practicing with the team.

http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/lazenb ... es-lakers/

The coach and player agreed that due to the surgery and Bryant’s years of competing so hard, the star should carry a reduced load this season.

In Jackson’s mind, that meant curbing Bryant’s minutes on the floor during the regular season games.

In Bryant’s mind, that meant he wouldn’t practice much, or at all.

And so he didn’t. According to sources, Bryant spent the first months of the season lifting weights and shooting but doing no actual practicing with the team.

“Phil was surprised that Kobe wasn’t practicing,” explained an observer.

Surprised as he was, Jackson said nothing to Bryant because the highly successful coach would never actually stoop to that. “Phil’s not gonna ask anybody to do anything,” the observer said. “Phil prides himself on never having a confrontation.”

And people call Shaq lazy? He had the same excuses as Kobe. Injuries.

[ThreeYearPlan]

A veteran basketball player who has had knee surgery three times has knee problems, I don't believe it

[droponov]

A veteran basketball player who has had knee surgery three times has knee problems, I don't believe it

What problems?

Because I have very little cartilage under my right knee cap, it’s almost bone on bone.

If this was true - if he had erosion of cartilage down to exposed subchondral bone, a grade IV injury - he'd be medically retired by now. I mean, he'd be past the opportunity of fixing it with microsurgery.

He's just making up stuff. He probably has some softening and swelling in the cartilage, like every other guy. That's what ice packs are for.

[JusBus32]

kneecap =/= knee

[LLcoleJ]

cool story

[eatyourchildren]

A veteran basketball player who has had knee surgery three times has knee problems, I don't believe it

What problems?

Because I have very little cartilage under my right knee cap, it’s almost bone on bone.

If this was true - if he had erosion of cartilage down to exposed subchondral bone, a grade IV injury - he'd be medically retired by now. I mean, he'd be past the opportunity of fixing it with microsurgery.

He's just making up stuff. He probably has some softening and swelling in the cartilage, like every other guy. That's what ice packs are for.

lolwut. This guy is trolling HARD right now

[Wavy Q]

trying a LITTLE too hard there.

[ndnow]

It's very common for an athlete to eventually get to this point but yeah he's getting close.

[LameR]

A veteran basketball player who has had knee surgery three times has knee problems, I don't believe it

What problems?

Because I have very little cartilage under my right knee cap, it’s almost bone on bone.

If this was true - if he had erosion of cartilage down to exposed subchondral bone, a grade IV injury - he'd be medically retired by now. I mean, he'd be past the opportunity of fixing it with microsurgery.

He's just making up stuff. He probably has some softening and swelling in the cartilage, like every other guy. That's what ice packs are for.

You need to calm down, and this is coming from a Blazers fan. I think Kobe's earned the right to do whatever he wants (to a degree) as long as the results are there.

[ikidunot]

I don't think Kobe is lying. I mean maybe the surgery's weren't as successful as he thought. Also watch him when he is on the court. He can't walk, he waddles from side to side. I don't know if that have anything to do with his knee though.

LOL and he said he was going to play in the 2012 Olympics. What he need to do is rest.

[NYK 455]

Doesn't sound too good. He's reasonably young, only 32, but he's been in the game since he was 18. He could probably hang around another 8-10 years with a reduced role, but I'm not sure his ego will allow him to go the way of Shaq or Duncan.

[carbine23]

Kobe never fails to impress me.

[Flash Falcon X]

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/kobe_pain_3X1vmSkbZlQquPUGNwrPfK#ixzz1AMhC2VHI

There’s nothing I like better than to practice.

[DrewBynum77]

I don't believe any of this. Kobe has a tendency to dramatize his own injuries. To play the "tough man" role and to bring injuries out of nowhere when he's underperforming.

Nobody loses that amount of meniscus without good reason. It's just medically impossible.

Hey guys, remember:

[Ruhiel]

I hope Kobe retires before he hurts himself. Time to head into the Lakers front office or open a basketball camp.

or schools for inner city youth?

[Lakers05]

I guess even the mighty Kobe Bryant is not immune to the effects of knee surgeries. Of course, it only took 3 removal procedures AND a ton of mileage for him to get to this point, so I guess he WAS blessed with thicker menisci than your average athlete.

If the team was smart, they'd limit his minutes to 15 per game or even sit him out completely. Yes, they'd probably end up as the 8th seed, but 8th seed is better than to accelerate his aging and end up having no chance(in the next couple of years) at all.

But this puts the onus on Bynum to put on the 25-30 lbs of muscles that I suggested. He has to become like Shaq(the Del-Harris version, the Magic or Phil version is probably out of the question) and become our goto guy. Yeah, his P&R D will probably suffer a bit, but it still wouldn't be worse than that version of Shaq. In addition, he'd compensate with shutdown post defense, great man-to-man defense, automatic post offense, and much improved rebounding. Plus, Gasol doesn't play any D at this point, and Phil doesn't seem to have a problem with him.

Now people may be worried about the effects on his knees. However, I would say that it's the removal procedure that will cause your knees to lose cartilage the most and/or landing off-balance from contact(due to lack of upper body strength) that is Bynum's problem. I mean, Shaq was overweight for years and never had knee problems. Yes, Shaq was more athletic and was probably blessed with thicker cartilage. However, Bynum, at this point, already has 2 knee surgeries. You can't tell me the difference between them is THAT large.

To me, the up-and-down movement at 325 lbs is far less dangerous than the "sideways" movements at 295. And with that much muscles, he probably won't have to jump as high, so you could say that the force of 325 lbs upon landing will actually be less than the force of 295 lbs(again assuming that he jumps lower at 325 lbs). Finally, there's always the repair surgery(though at this point, I'm curious what happens if you have multiples of these procedures), so there's no need to fret out about "possible" knee injuries that much.

I'd say go all-out and try to win the championship(including reducing body fat to 3%). These guys are already pushing themselves to the limit with their training, so what's a little more risk.