Even though Kobe Bryant retired from the game of basketball in 2016, he was quick to let all of his fellow NBA players know that he would not be stepping away from it completely. In fact, he said he would be more than willing to step back into the basketball arena and dish out advice to anyone who needed it. Since then, he has helped Kyrie Irving, Draymond Green, and a number of other NBA players with all kinds of different issues.
The latest player to come to Kobe for help is none other than Steph Curry. Curry has been playing with an injured ring finger on his shooting hand, and there’s a chance he could need to have surgery on it once the season ends. But for the time being, he’s trying to manage the pain that comes along with it. It’s something Kobe also dealt with during his storied career, so recently, Curry called on Kobe for help. He asked for advice on how to play with the lingering injury that could end up bothering him for the rest of the year, according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.
Curry didn’t go into great detail with regards to what Kobe said to him, but he did reveal that Kobe gave him some bad news. Of all the injuries Kobe dealt with during his career, he told Curry that his finger injury was one of the most painful ones. He also said it was incredibly slow to heal and gave him fits for months before he was finally able to get it right.
It wasn’t all bad news, though. Kobe did give Curry some practical advice about dealing with his finger injury. He told him that he’s going to need to make sure it’s wrapped and padded for as long as it hurts. He also said that he’s going to need to find a way to continue shooting his normal shot without allowing the finger to get in the way, and it sounds like that’s what Curry plans to do.
"It hurts," Curry said. "But guys have played through worse than this. Obviously, with your shooting hand, it’s one of those things you got to get adjusted to. I'm not used to playing with tape, a brace, wrist wrap, all that stuff. But I’ll get better with it."
It looks like there’s definitely going to be an adjustment period. While Curry did score 28 points against the Lakers on Wednesday night on 9-for-20 shooting, he also shot three uncharacteristic airballs early on and 13 of his points came in overtime of the game.
It’s not quite time to panic yet if you’re a Warriors fan, but when you consider that the Warriors still have 60 games to go in the regular season and at least 16 playoff games, Curry’s finger could be a cause for concern moving forward. He might need to keep Kobe on speed-dial for the next few months.
