Andrew Bynum is ready for training camp. Well, the part of him that cares at least. Bynum is still limping, and is more likely to play a game of hop-scotch than be suited up and ready to play in the preseason.
Bynum still has not fixed last spring’s torn knee, and decided instead to have a trainer drain the fluid out after the NBA Finals so he could make a trip to South Africa and watch the World Cup. What a joke.
Your hobbling and toughness fighting the knee injury in the 2010 playoffs cannot be held accountable when you choose to attend the World Cup and postpone much-needed surgery for your ailing knee.
Bynum has only played in all 82 games of the regular season once in the last five years, and missed most of the 2008 playoffs, where the Lakers found themselves in dire need of a big man.
Set to make 13.7 million this season, Bynum can sit back and make the money from the bench, but at least he will be rehabbing…when the season is under way. Why use the offseason for that? It’s not like the team needs you or anything.
Keep in mind Bynum is making as much in salary in 2011 as Lamar Odom and Ron Artest will make…combined. It seems evident that Bynum is willing to fight through the pain, but is he committed to an off-season recovery.
Sure does not seem like it. This continual trend of egocentric athletes has flourished in recent years, as athletes take advantage of their guaranteed contracts to milk the system, delaying any rehab or surgeries needed not on company time.
Carlos Beltran went against the wishes of the New York Mets and had surgery, leaving him out of the line up for the first two months of the Mets season. Management was not too pleased with that.
But Lakers GM Mitch Kupchack is spoiling the heck out of the 23-year-old Bynum. Might as well shine his knee brace with a diaper Mitch. Kupchack was disappointed with Bynum not being ready entering training camp, which begins Saturday for the Lakers, but still believes Bynum can be that franchise player.
You sure don’t define that role when you choose to have your surgery almost a month and a half after the end of the regular season.
A franchise player needs to be committed, dedicated, and above all, injury-free in order to establish that title. Take Kobe Bryant. Dislocated pinkey. Still playing. Nothing has been this degrading for the Lakers since the infamous delay of Shaq’s surgery on his big toe heading into the 2002-2003 season.
O’Neal famously said, “I got hurt on company time, so I’ll heal on company time.”
The egos of these players have gotten way out of hand. Even though the level of talent they possess is only within a extremely small percentage of the population, the arrogance offends me.
If anything, Bynum should have taken the initiative to have surgery out of guilt, knowing his derailing injury has not made it easy for the Lakers during their back-to-back championship runs.
If he felt so bad playing the role of Adam Morrison, and participating in the NBA Finals in a suit, then why would he delay his much needed surgery deep into the off-season. I know–because World Cup soccer is more important than getting prepared to perform your job for the upcoming season.
You have let the organization down, fans down, and above all, your teammates down. Bynum is a special player, with a great inside presence and someone who can be considered a franchise tag.
But as far as I am concerned, he is not committed. The saying goes that work comes before play, not the other way around.
A lame excuse, a sorry excuse, and a dismal way to show your dedication to the game of basketball. A game that defines your lifestyle. Without it, what then?
13.7 million dollars is a lot of money. If you knee fails to get better, good luck making that money elsewhere.
Back to the drawing board Lakers. Your starting center is not ready…again. Will he ever be?
To be ready or not ready. Now that is the question.