Breathe easy, Laker fans. It looks like Kobe Bryant is protected from the scourge of the chicken pox. Despite teammate Steve Blake being locked up in quarantine while he gets his scratch on, Kobe told the Orange County Register that he should have a clean bill of health.
Kobe Bryant said his father told the Lakers he believes Bryant was vaccinated against chickenpox as a youth, which helped allay some fears that the Lakers’ star might have contracted the virus from teammate Steve Blake, who is out indefinitely with it.
Bryant also joked about putting on makeup to hide it if he did have chickenpox so he could continue to play.
“If I had it, I wouldn’t tell y’all (expletive),” Bryant said to reporters.
Bryant, Andrew Bynum and Ron Artest all told the team they’ve never had chicken pox. No word on whether the last two ever were immunized against it. Considering Bynum’s career playoff attendance record, I’d suggest he get some calamine lotion.
Overall, though, it’s been a good couple days’ worth of on-court news for the Lake Show. It appears that Bynum’s injury is just a bone bruise and now there seems to be little chance of Kobe catching any itches beyond his shooting hand.