A good attitude and the addition of Gasol bode well for a title shot.

By KEVIN DING – The Orange County Register

EL SEGUNDO – The Lakers know they’re going to be really good. You can see it in Kobe Bryant’s relaxation, Pau Gasol’s earnestness and Phil Jackson’s sparkling eye.

What is at issue is how fast that confidence can translate into a championship.

It could happen over the next four months, which is why Bryant and his coach agreed in a conversation Thursday after learning about torn ligaments in Bryant’s shooting hand that surgery wasn’t a viable option, even if it was doctor-recommended.

“It’s just too good an opportunity for us right now as a team,” Jackson said.

Everything that has happened over the past four months — except for injuries that have left Jackson joking about “a black cloud” over his second tenure with the Lakers — is more than anyone could have dreamed for an organization once in turmoil.

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Bryant’s injured finger would have had a bull’s eye on it in years past, but that kind of ‘old-school’ approach is less prevalent today.

By Mark Heisler, Los Angeles Times

NEW ORLEANS — Having played the first 2 minutes 47 seconds of the All-Star game and escaped unscathed, Kobe Bryant now turns his focus back to the Lakers’ season, where his appearance will be more than ceremonial.

Once, opposing players would have actually attacked an injured player, and it remains to be seen how today’s players will approach Bryant, who has a torn ligament in his right pinkie finger.

“Well, we had a little rule,” said Boston Celtics Coach Doc Rivers, “if you put something on your hand or on your body, that was a bull’s eye.

“I don’t know if that goes on anymore. We actually talk about that. I don’t think anyone wants to hurt anyone, but if you’re going to go out and play injured, we’re not going to let you beat us injured. That was the old-school thought. I think that’s still prevalent today, but not as much.”

Said New Orleans Hornets Coach Byron Scott, another old-school player and once Bryant’s teammate and mentor with the Lakers:

“I don’t think they do it now. In our day they would have done it every game until he couldn’t probably play, especially if you have an injury like Kobe has, where you have to wear some type of protection; guys would take shots at that all the time.

“But it’s a different league now. I don’t think it’s as physical or as rough, which is probably a good thing as well.”

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The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS – In a proud city still restoring its unique beauty, the Eastern Conference repaired its own image.

Ray Allen scored 28points, making three straight 3-pointers in the final 3:15, and LeBron James added 27 as the East, widely considered the NBA’s weaker half, beat the Western Conference 134-128 in Sunday night’s All-Star Game.

Last year, the West humiliated the East in a 153-132 rout in Las Vegas when Kobe Bryant and Co. rewrote the event’s record books. However, this time led by Allen’s 14 fourth-quarter points and a stunning dunk by James with 55 seconds left, the East salvaged some pride and can return to the season’s second half with bragging rights.

And this time, Bryant made nothing more than a cameo appearance. The Lakers star, who won MVP honors last year, played less than 3 minutes so he could rest his injured pinkie. The 10-time All-Star dislocated his finger earlier this month and doctors have advised him to have surgery.

Bryant, though, energized by the club’s addition of center Pau Gasol in a trade, wants to delay any operation until late summer. As soon as he took on the West’s bench, a trainer wrapped a large ice pack around his entire hand, rendering arguably the league’s top player to spectator status.

The West could have used him.

“There’s one player we really, really missed, and that was Kobe,” West coach Byron Scott of New Orleans said. “Obviously, Kobe would have loved to play.”

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John DeShazier – The Times-Picayune

He is unrivaled now and has been the last four to six seasons, depending on who is asked.

There, atop the NBA’s list of excellence, sits the one player the consensus seems to agree is the best the league currently has to offer, one of the best who ever will take a basketball and create a masterpiece. Kobe.

There are NBA stars in New Orleans this weekend, and there are NBA All-Stars in New Orleans this weekend, several of who will play in today’s game, and there is Kobe Bryant, to whom the stars and All-Stars defer.

“Kobe,” Jazz forward Carlos Boozer said, almost before the who’s-the-best question could be completed. “Kobe Bryant. He has everything offensively, and he has everything defensively. He has no flaws.

“If there’s a guy in this league that doesn’t have any flaws, it’d be Kobe.”

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With the the Lakers emerging as contenders, the star decides to play through a finger injury

The Salt Lake Tribune

Go ahead, call Kobe Bryant selfish. Call him arrogant and self-centered. Call him a fool for running off Shaq. Call him a diva for his offseason trade demands.

Just don’t call him soft.

Don’t say that the lifetime Los Angeles Laker doesn’t ultimately want to win, and please don’t say he’s not a competitor who’s not willing to play through pain. I say this because of the torn ligaments in his finger, the one on his shooting hand. I say this because the pain that comes along with that is no joke.

Think about it. Even if you tape the finger, which Bryant will do heavily, it’ll still get hit every time he touches the ball. It’ll still get hit on every shot, on every pass, every time a defender reaches and every time he goes to the basket.

That’s a lot of contact to take over 30 games, not counting the playoffs. But the alternative for Kobe is to hang it up for six weeks, take the surgery and hope like heck that the Lakers will still be in the playoff hunt once the finger heals.

In that vein, Bryant has no choice.

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