Kobe Bryant heads to Germany for knee relief

Last year, word hit that Kobe Bryant was sitting out just about every Los Angeles Lakers practice, mainly because his goofed-up right knee wasn't able to handle the day-to-day pounding matched with the expectations of having to play deep into June as the Lakers defended their back-to-back championships. Nothing wrong with that, we submit, as Kobe has been working himself to the bone and into the postseason since entering the league in 1996, with the lone exception of the frustrating 2004-05 campaign.

So it makes complete sense that Bryant -- with no hope of his right leg sprouting a new knee and requisite ligaments after three rubs of a genie's lamp -- would take on some unorthodox techniques as he attempts to rehab and get back into those Finals.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday that Bryant has taken part in what they called "a derivation of platelet-rich plasma therapy." The idea behind the whole unorthodox routine relies on a physician taking a plasma sample from Kobe, running it 'round a centrifuge until the platelets are isolated, and then watching as a doctor injects what's left from his blood sample back into what hurts the worst.

Namely, his arthritic right knee. The procedure is no gimmie, as the Los Angeles Times reports:

"The interesting part is that it's not super complicated," [Stanford Orthopedic surgeon Allan Mishra] said. "It's really only your own blood taken out of a vein and prepared right in front of you and then put back in an area of your condition. So the concept is to try and use within your own body to help heal yourself. This is an opportunity to really take advantage of the body's own natural ability."

Mishra went on to conclude that "the data is immature" behind this sort of platelet invasion -- it has yet to settle itself with a cadre of significant results. And we should point out that previous NBA participants like Portland's Brandon Roy and Wesley Matthews have yet to show any significant recovery bounces from their willingness to undergo the same procedure.

But as far as barely invasive operations go, can you blame these guys for trying? Especially when the other procedure that tries to stimulate the same growth -- microfracture surgery -- requires a surgically inspired bone break and far more rehabilitation time?

For Kobe, it's hardly a last chance, as he's never had to deal with any sort of major ligament and/or cartilage tear. His knee fatigue stems solely from playing more minutes (regular season plus playoffs) than anyone else, by far, from his generation over the last 15 years. And the attempt is well worth it because Bryant has clearly not been himself for the last two seasons, and any little bit helps.

Even if it means moving platelets around. Gross, Kobe. Gross.

(But, yes -- get well soon.)

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Why was Aubrey Huff crying after the Giants? victory?

It was the highlight that sparked a big question on Friday night. Why was San Francisco Giants first baseman Aubrey Huff crying in the team's postgame handshake line? Especially since they had just defeated the Detroit Tigers, 4-3?

Since most of us saw the clip without any context (or without any sound in restaurants and bars), there were a lot of questions to be asked. Was he upset over the death of the clubhouse water cooler after Brian Wilson took a bat to it after a blown save? Was he remembering the .567 OPS he posted for the Tigers during an ill-fated playoff push in 2009? Or just simply missing his retired red rally thong?

Given Huff's reputation as a prankster, I thought he was probably just hamming it up and joking for the entertainment of his teammates. It's a theory supported by someone close to the team, San Jose Mercury News reporter Andrew Baggarly.

From the Mercury News:

"Several folks have asked me why Aubrey Huff appeared to be wiping away tears in the handshake line. Not sure, but Huff has this mock crying performance thing that he does often, usually when he's talking about his batting average. He'll start laughing and end up crying. He's a showman."

That's not to say Huff doesn't have a sentimental side. The Stew was there last November when he cried and cried after winning the World Series. But given that Friday's game was just another during the grind of a season it's probably safe to say he was just messing around.

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NBA team websites could get boring during a lockout

To its credit, the NBA has always been near the forefront of using the Internet to reach out to fans. Whereas leagues like the NFL and MLB have done everything possible to keep highlights from popping up on YouTube, the NBA freely disseminates videos. They've also embraced Twitter and encouraged players to use it as a positive marketing tool.

Unfortunately, a lockout would put much of the league's web activity on hold. Kevin Arnovitz explains at TrueHoop:

But for the guys who are in charge of those team websites and NBA.com, the pending deadline is a huge deal.

That's because the moment the clock strikes midnight on the current CBA, all those images and videos of NBA players have to disappear off NBA-owned digital properties. Depending on how you interpret "fair use," the prohibition could include the mere mention of a player's name on an NBA-owned site, though different teams have different interpretations of this particular stipulation.

Over the past few weeks, NBA website administrators and support staff have endured two-hour conference calls and countless planning sessions to figure out how to eliminate all these photos, highlights, articles and promotional features from the sites.

As Arnovitz describes it, most team websites are about to turn into desolate wastelands (imagined here by Trey Kerby at TBJ). They'll be populated mostly by mascots and dancers, and any exciting player videos will be replaced by dispatches from charity events. So, Clippers fans, do you like Blake Griffin dunks? Because pretty soon your visits to clippers.com will be met with an interview featuring Clips superfan Frankie Muniz.

It's a tough break for NBA teams as they try to make their players more marketable. There's not much NBA news during the summer, but it's still an important time for teams to introduce new players to their fans and help build up the reputations of their budding stars. Without official Internet outreach, many of these players will hit their home courts for the first time next season with the home fans knowing little about them. It's a lose-lose-lose proposition for teams, players and fans.

Of course, dull websites are just one of many things that will make the league less interesting to follow during a lockout. It's going to be rough, guys. Enjoy the league while you still can.

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Dwight Howard takes a joking, if needless, shot at LeBron?s hair

Dwight Howard may have been joking when he sent a little Twitter shot at LeBron James' receding hairline Wednesday, but have we finally gotten to a point where this might be crossing a line? James has taken in quite a bit of deserved criticism, but a man's thinning hair, coming from another man? Come on, Dwight. Cold.

Since The Decision, we've seen nearly a decade's worth of snark, satire, schadenfreude and sneering sent LeBron James' way, just within a year's time. But rarely has that poison wit crossed over to mocking the man's appearance.

And certainly none of it has come from an NBA All-Star nearly at James' stature. Someone like the three-time Defensive Player of the Year in Dwight Howard, who had this to say about James' somewhat-receding hairline Wednesday while on Twitter:

Geez, Dwight. This is the one thing that is out of LeBron's control, and you have to go there?

Plus, it should be noted that at about the same age, Michael Jordan not only had as many rings as LeBron James has, but his hairline was in much worse shape:

Yes, I went there. I will now spend the rest of the afternoon hiding from lightning bolts.

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Jon Gruden discovers another side of Terrelle Pryor, humanitarian

Terrelle Pryor wants your tired, your poor?. your homeless.

That's right, Terrelle Pryor is trying to reform his image from, well, cheater, to humanitarian.

During his film review session with former NFL coach Jon Gruden on ESPN, Pryor continued to give ambiguous answers about his past, but he was clear about his altruistic future. No longer will Pryor think of himself; he's now a giver.

"I'm very heartfelt," he said. "I like taking care of people. I like putting people first and me being last. Anytime I see a person on the street, I give them the money I have; I pick 'em up, take 'em to go get food, you know. It gives me enjoyment, you know, just to put a smile on another person's face, it means the world to me."

Are you done laughing or should I give you a couple more minutes?

I'm sure Pryor brought a lot of smiles to people's faces as he sold his memorabilia and traded his signature for cash. I'm sure the bulk of that money went to soup kitchens across Columbus, Ohio or toward Happy Meals for homeless children.

It would be criminal if someone -- perhaps the NFL Network -- didn't spend a day or two with Pryor to get to know his philanthropic side. To share one of his (alleged) seven different cars with a homeless man as he takes him to the local Golden Corral for its all-you-can-eat buffet.

If Pryor wants to rebuild his image, this is surely a better way to do it than continually spewing apologies for ambiguous misdeeds that he won't actually talk about.

Pryor, who hasn't taken questions from the media since he left Ohio State last month, did field a couple softballs from Gruden about what went down at Ohio State. It wasn't anything Earth-shattering, but Pryor did acknowledge he was disgusted. With what? Well, we still don't know.

"I'm disgusted on what really went down, what had to happen to that university," Pryor said. "I regret the fact that Coach Tress had to leave, and I regret the fact that I had to leave. I just wish I could still be there with my teammates. I'm just trying to get used to it and just try to move on. It's hard for me, but it's something I have to do."

At some point, maybe far into the future, we'll all finally learn what "had" to happen to the university. Maybe Pryor will talk freely about his three seasons at Ohio State and we'll all find clarity in his answer. Maybe the homeless of Columbus really know more than we do since he's spent so much time hob-knobbing with them.

Or perhaps we'll learn that Pryor is still just all about himself.

"You know, [I'm] very heartfelt for it, very sorry," Pryor said. "But at the same time, I still have to move on because I still have a life I have to live."

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Hometown discount? Kevin Bieksa stays with Canucks, 5 years

After the Stanley Cup Finals, defenseman Kevin Bieksa was quite clear about the financial decisions that were ahead of him as a pending unrestricted free agent ? including what it would take to remain with the Vancouver Canucks.

From the Sun:

"I think everybody takes less to play here," Bieksa said of the Canucks. "It's such a great organization that you want to be here, so if you want to be here you have to take less, that's just the culture. It's like Detroit. If you want to win, you have to take less to be here. Again, without making my agent's job too tough, I'm optimistic."

About 10 days after that declaration, the deal is done: Bieksa re-signed with Vancouver for five years and $23 million according to TSN, giving Vancouver a $4.6 million cap hit. He made $3.5 million against the cap last season.

This cap hit puts him $100,000 higher than teammate Dan Hamhuis, who is also signed through 2016. Before Hamhuis's injury, they combined to form one of the best shutdown defensive pairings in the playoffs.

Was this a hometown discount? Hard to say. Bieksa's value skyrocketed in the postseason, and he would have been sought by a number of contending teams as a quality veteran piece and by a number of building teams as a foundational defenseman.

But he's a 22-point player who wasn't a contributor on the power play last season; every defenseman making more than $5 million against the cap next season (via NHL Numbers) has much better offensive credentials than Bieksa. That's not to say that he wouldn't have gotten offers for more than $5 million annually against the cap, because it's an open bidding process. But 5 years, $23 million is more than fair compensation for him.

The Canucks still have Christian Ehrhoff and Sami Salo to sign and have five defensemen under contract for next season.

Good on the Canucks and Bieksa for getting this done. We just hope he kicks a little dough The Stanchion's way for the Game 5 effort.

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How to properly treat and care for a 7-footer

Good news, American citizens who stand over 7-feet tall. While annoying (and often downright rude) gawkers may enervate you on a daily basis, you might be shocked to know that you have a 17 percent chance of playing in the NBA. Seventeen. That speaks to how surprisingly few American males between the age of 20 and 70 walk among us, and just how many actually make the NBA. Counter that with the percentage of American males who stand between 6-6 and 6-8 and their probability at making the NBA: .07 percent.

All this comes from a fascinating feature on 7-footers penned by Sports Illustrated's Pablo Torre this week. �This isn't a documentation of once-millionaire 7-footers wingeing about their height and how people treat them, rather, it's just a study on how they get by. And how a 7-2 center might not look all that different when working amongst 6-10 power forwards, but they certainly do warrant a second look walking past you and your girlfriend at Whole Foods.

Here's a snippet of the must-read:

Finding footwear that fits can be an even more painful pursuit. "People won't stock shoes over size 15," says Bruce Teilhaber, the owner of Friedman's Shoes in downtown Atlanta. "We have more 17s than 8s, so the biggest guys are all mine. And I don't know what I'd do without them." Nor they him. Former Pacers center Rik Smits, who stands 7'4", wore such tight shoes at home in the Netherlands as a teenager that he developed excruciating nerve damage in his feet. In 1962, as an impoverished 12-year-old in Chipley, Fla., [Artis] Gilmore was so outsized, he says, that he went barefoot for an entire year. Today, both Smits (size 20) and Gilmore (18) are customers at Friedman's?as is every retired player quoted in this story. (As Teilhaber exclaimed on a recent afternoon, "I just sent [7'2" former Jazz center] Luther Wright three pairs of 20s!")

But no matter how many niche businesses emerge to serve big men, complications of fit are guaranteed. "Nothing is ergonomically correct for a 7-footer," says 7'2" James Donaldson, who played center for five teams over 14 years and now runs the Donaldson Clinic, a physical therapy center in Mill Creek, Wash. "I would love, just once, to fill up a hotel bathtub with bubbles and soak in it like a normal-sized person can." But that will never happen. More frustrating?not to mention dangerous?are doorways, which have long been standardized at 6'8", along with ceiling fans, exit signs and steel emergency sprinklers, lying in wait like caltrops. "With those things, you're talking about scalping an individual," says Gilmore. Rare is the pivotman who has emerged unscathed.

Yikes. Consider that Smits' career ended far earlier than it should have due to foot problems created by those shoddy shoes.

I can't get over the rarity inherent in these men. That 17 percent probability rate blows me away, and it's certainly something to think about the next time we rank our team's 6-11 center as "undersized."

Also, would it kill you to politely ask a former NBA center before whirring (you think) surreptitiously to position yourself in frame to take a picture with one? They can see you down there, you know.

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