The last thing the Los Angeles Lakers need as insane as this sounds, is for Chris Kaman to miss a significant amount of playing time due to avoidable accidents. Fortunately for them, it probably won’t come to that.
According to a story via Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers big man smashed his finger while toboganning near the Great Wall of China, where the team is visiting during a preseason tour.
Kaman, as big as he is, was riding some sort of kart on wheels on a concrete path when teammate Shawne Williams came speeding towards him.
“I didn’t hit the brake the whole time. Guys on the edge were yelling ‘Slow down’ and I just kept going,” Kaman said. “All of a sudden I catch up to this guy close to the bottom, so now I have to brake. Shawne Williams comes behind me without hitting his brake at all and just smashed right into me.”
Williams was going 20-25 mph hour and Kaman was going only about 3 mph at the time of the collision, Kaman said.
“My hand smashed right between the two sleds. I didn’t feel the end of my finger for, like, an hour,” Kaman said, extending a bandaged, swollen middle finger. “It’s starting to throb a little right now.”
Will he play Tuesday against Golden State in an exhibition here?
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he said.
Good luck Lakers nation, you’re going to need it.