On Saturday both Los Angeles area basketball teams played.  Initially this sounded like good way to waste away a day.  Until you look at the games:  Lakers vs. Grizzles, and Clippers vs. Wizards.  Really?  I’m not sure I could have thought up two worse match-ups .   Surely, god is getting back at me for betting on the Steelers in the Super Bowl.

Then it happened.

Less than ten minutes into the Lakers game, Andrew Bynum went down screaming.  The most logical thought was that playing in Memphis was too much for him and he couldn’t take it for more than 7 minutes.

Then he began grabbing his knee.

KCAL sideline reporter John Ireland later said “The preliminary diagnosis is a sprained right knee.”  He also reported that the trainers won’t get much more from x-rays until tomorrow in New York when he will have an MRI.

Two things happened for every Lakers fan at that moment: 1) they all just stabbed themselves in the eye with a spork and 2) they checked online to see if they could donate knee ligaments.

It is his right knee, not the left he injured last year, plus he looked alright after the game, so he could be fine–possible he just didn’t react that way because it immediately reminded him what happened last year, I’d probably scream too if I thought I just lost another shot at a ring.

However, more astonishing than the injury was Kobe’s reaction.

Normally the guy who brushes things like this off with the “oh well, I’ll just carry more of the load,” Kobe’s body language screamed dejection and disbelief.

He shook his head, rolled his eyes as if to say “are you freakin’ kidding me.”

Not only did his negative reaction spew over to his teammates, as the superstar squatted close to the Bynum like he was taking a intro to sports medicine class, but it displayed just how important Bynum has become to the Lakers.

When Kobe thinks you are important, you are freaking important. This is the same guy who didn’t think Shaq was that essential in 2004, which is like saying that Chloe isn’t vital to everything Jack Bauer does.

Maybe this really is a new Kobe.  Maybe he finally realizes that teammates are important and that he can’t win a championship without a good big man.  Dare I say this is a more “mature” Kobe?  Perhaps his bullheaded, ‘me against the world’ attitude is evolving.

It’s easy to see why he would be frustrated.  Bynum has been playing lately like he should be in the All-Star Game (yes, over Shaq).  And while his 42-point game  came against the six-man rec-league squad the Clippers are masquerading as a team, his extremely solid game against Tim Duncan and the Spurs a week ago proved he’s got the skill to grow into a monster.

Bynxum is exactly what Kobe needs: A big man who can score without demanding a ton of touches, can get scrappy buckets, and will do whatever he says.

For Bynum’s sake let’s hope his injury is not major and that he will not miss significant time.  He’s too good, too young and too much fun to watch (since I have to suffer through watching them anyway–which if you ever have to do on local LA television, please mute your TV so that your ears won’t bleed listening to Joel Meyers and Stu Lantz bumble around for 3 hours).

Perhaps Kobe is blaming himself for falling into Bynum’s knee, and his lackadaisical play the rest of the half was because his mind what elsewhere.

But my bet is that Kobe’s initial reaction and dejection was because his first thought when he saw Bynum down was “Man, now Chirs Mihm will have to play.”

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Kevin Patra lives by the adage: Those who can’t do, teach, and those who can’t do or teach, write.  Currently, he is a graduate student at the University of Southern California studying Online Journalism, after spending four years at the University of Michigan obtaining a bachelors degree from the school of Language, Science, & Fun.  Patra still owns a teal Grant Hill jersey and is looking for his old FILA blasketball shoes.