Bryant Is Back for Laker Win

Before Kobe Bryant played against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night, Laker trainer Gary Vitti leaned into his ear and told him, “I said a prayer for you.”

For the previous 48 hours, Vitti, being accustomed to Bryant’s willful moments, had prepared as if Bryant would insist on trying to play.

He ordered a specially fitted shirt and constructed a shoulder pad. When Bryant walked into the locker room 75 minutes before game time and nodded, Vitti, against his best judgment, wrapped him in plastic and nylon and let him go.

“I didn’t want him to play,” Vitti said after Bryant’s 18 points and 10 assists had aided the Lakers’ 117-109 victory at FleetCenter. “I felt he needed more time.”

Five days before, Bryant had sprained his shoulder for the second time in two months, and a day later the organization announced he might need four weeks to heal.

Bryant could not shoot without pain on Monday, and on Tuesday, certain he would be unable to play against the Celtics, he returned to Newport Beach to spend the day with his wife and daughter. From Salt Lake City, the team flew ahead to Boston and held a Bryant-less shoot-around Wednesday morning.

By early evening, Coach Phil Jackson was saying he hoped Bryant could play by Friday, when Karl Malone is expected to return. At about that time Bryant brushed past and said he’d play.

He would not wait, he said, for something that might never come.

“I’m not going to be fully healed for the whole season,” he said.

So, during “The Star-Spangled Banner,” when Vitti closes his eyes and thinks positive thoughts every night, he thought about Bryant -- the molded piece of orthoplast balanced on his right shoulder, the purple compression shirt beneath his jersey -- and made himself believe he was doing the right thing by allowing him to play. The best he could do was a prayer.

In the darkness of the pre-game introductions, Bryant nodded, thanked Vitti for the sentiment and they touched fists.

“I felt it was all right,” Bryant said. “They trust my decision-making. They knew I was ready to play. I felt I was ready to play. They let me go in there with it.”

He started against the Celtics, and sometimes tried to drive the offense, but mostly ran alongside it. On a night Shaquille O’Neal had 28 points and 17 rebounds, Gary Payton had 20 points and Kareem Rush came off the bench for 17 points, Bryant shot four for 16 from the field.

But he played 40 minutes, tried to protect his shoulder and played just enough defense for the Lakers to maintain a safe lead. The Celtics lost for the first time in seven games.

Incomplete for coming up on half-a-season, the Lakers had three of their four superstars on the floor, with Malone at the end of their bench, serving what he believes to be his final game on the injured list.

The Laker staff knew over the weekend that Bryant’s recovery would not require a month. Within hours Bryant had been able to raise his right arm, and in days he was on a basketball court, flipping short jump shots. As publicist John Black said Wednesday night, “We said, ‘approximately’ four weeks.”

Said Jackson: “We were assured that there was no damage he could do to his shoulder. That’s the big key. It’s not something where he could be susceptible to any injury by ... running into a pick or reaching for a pick or anything like that. It’s not like a dislocated shoulder.”

Bryant said he arose Wednesday morning in Orange County knowing he would play that night.

He had gone home, he said, to “Refresh a little bit. See my family. Rejuvenation. Made my shoulder feel a lot better.”

He hoped to get to Boston in time for the shoot-around, but couldn’t, he said, “get the plane out quite in time.”

But, he said, “Everything’s fine. Just one of those things.”

As the arena filled, Bryant pushed through the locker room door, said hello to Horace Grant, hugged Malone, slapped Payton’s hand.

“Baby boy!,” Payton shouted. “You’re looking cheerful.”

“I’m feeling good,” Bryant said with a smile.

An hour later, his hands stuffed in his pockets, he was eighth out of the locker room in a line of purple warmups, one shoulder bulkier than the other.

Gary Vitti closed his eyes.