I wrote the other day about Kobe Bryant deciding to forgo surgery on his pinkie finger and to my surprise, I got lots of responses with fans that aren’t happy about his decision.

I will be the first to say that his shooting touch hasn’t been the same since his injury. However, I’m also the first to say that Kobe has finally evolved mentally into the player the Lakers franchise has been waiting for him to become.

He is the leader of this team, his team, and he has embraced his roll. You want him to pass, he passes. You want him to shoot, he shoots. You want him to go out with his teammates, he goes out with his teammates (even pays for the dinners and hands out fancy watches).

The role players and bench warmers all feel the same way about Kobe, he is more down to earth and a member of the same team they all play for, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Now in terms of his actual ability to play with the issues revolving around his hand and him opting to start the season off strong rather than sitting out for a few weeks to finish his recovery process, it’s difficult to determine what the right decision was. He announced that he would play from Day 1 and made it seem like his decision was only based on the fact that he is so competitive that he wants to be there to guide this team from Day 1.

Now lets be logical! Kobe Bryant is a multi-millionaire and has all the money in the world to see the right doctors and get the correct opinions. The Lakers managers and coaches all know that they need Kobe Bryant at full strength in order to win in June. Don’t you think that everyone had an opinion in this matter? Doesn’t it only make sense that Kobe would discuss the scenarios with Phil Jackson and see how the Zen-meister feels about it? Surely enough Jax could advise him on whether he’d prefer him to be playing from the beginning or joining the team farther down the road.

I’m glad that there are so many passionate fans out there that want to see Kobe at his best, but I trult believe that we don’t need that Kobe that scores 3253207 points just for the Lakers to pull out a win. We need Kobe to be the leader and the floor general, the motivator and the inspirer. Mitch Kupchak has done a great job building this roster and there are plenty of guys that can score and create offense.

The 2008-2009 Lakers season will be a very successful one. I can feel it now! Training camp opens in less than a month and I’m already salivating at the idea of opening night at Staples!