A Season of Fame and Misfortune

In case you didn’t think this Laker season was topsy-turvy or even jinxed, this just in: It is.

It’s gotten so bad that the injuries are starting to repeat themselves. Kobe Bryant, right shoulder. Haven’t we seen that one before?

The Lakers keep talking about what will happen when they get everyone back in the lineup, neglecting to add that’s if they get everyone back.

Friday night they went from discussing the best possible date for Karl Malone’s return to fearing the worst diagnosis for Bryant’s shoulder. He injured it in the first minute of their 99-91 victory over Seattle when SuperSonic forward Reggie Evans set a hard screen on him.

Bryant had surgery on the right shoulder last summer and sprained a joint in the same shoulder on Jan. 12, which forced him to miss six games. He will have an MRI exam today to determine the extent of this latest injury.

“We’re quite concerned about this,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “I didn’t see it. Some people told me on videotape it didn’t look good.”

It didn’t look good at all. His arm listed to the side as he walked toward the other end of the court. When trainer Gary Vitti tried to touch the shoulder, Bryant winced and removed Vitti’s hand. They went back to the tunnel. As they passed the bench, Rick Fox asked Bryant if he had a stinger, Bryant didn’t respond, and Fox started to worry.

Shaquille O’Neal, Slava Medvedenko and Fox have all missed significant numbers of games. Rookie Brian Cook keeps breaking fingers. Horace Grant is out until further notice with a hip injury. Even if Bryant can return soon, he still has pretrial hearings for his sexual assault case in Colorado that could keep him out of games.

“Hopefully we’ll be a team that’s deep enough to make it through a season and win a championship amidst the injuries and off-court stress,” Fox said.

They’re turning more and more to hope, because right now there’s very little proof and diminishing time for a test run.

The Lakers are 61 games into the season and they still haven’t put their presumed playoff starting lineup on the court. This has gone on so long that even the Sacramento Kings and the perpetually injured Chris Webber are more complete.

“Right now we’ve dealt with more physical issues than mental issues,” Fox said. “It is unforeseen for us to be going through this. We’ve had a great stretch of luck in those runs of championships. Right now we’re dealing with a new type of season.”

As Fox suggested, it takes good fortune to win a championship, let alone three in a row.

About the only break the Lakers have had recently was that bad call in Denver that went their way, setting the stage for Kareem Rush’s game-winning three-pointer.

It’s their misfortune that’s been more prevalent -- and unprecedented.

Malone came here looking for his first championship, and instead wound up with his first trip to the injured list after Scott Williams fell on his knee and damaged a ligament on Dec. 21.

Since then he has missed 36 games and counting. He is expected to participate in his first full practice today, and Jackson cautiously pointed to March 15, when the Lakers begin a nine-game stretch at Staples Center, as the ideal time for Malone to come back.

All of the Lakers, even Bryant, kept pointing to the return of Malone as the moment when they could really be dangerous, perhaps even duplicate their dominance in that 18-3 start to the season.

They won’t have the same Malone who averaged 14 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists. Even though he says he won’t wear a knee brace, he will be playing with some additional, novel weight: fear.

This is a completely new experience for him, and he admitted it will be hard for him to be worry-free at first.

“I think if I get some practices under my belt, [the concern] will leave some,” Malone said. “But it’s still going to be there. The first time I get hit awkwardly in the thigh or something like that, I’m going to think about it. I think by having some practices, it’ll leave.

“I was talking to Shaq, when he had his [knee injury in 1996-97]. His didn’t leave until all of a sudden he stopped thinking about it.

“I’m going to think about it in practice [today]. I’m going to think about it when we start warming up for practice, when I go up for the first rebound. Hopefully, two or three practices, it’ll go away. But games, it’s going to be there. It’ll be there, but it’s something I’ve got to block out.”

We’ll see if Malone gets a chance to work through these issues with Bryant in the lineup.

For a while this season the Lakers were OK without Bryant, as long as they had O’Neal in the lineup. They won five of their first seven games this season with O’Neal and without Bryant.

But ever since the All-Star break, as Bryant started feeling better and playing better, the Lakers had been completely dependent on him. They fed off his energy, turned to him for leadership and won eight of the nine games in which he played.

Now it appears he’ll be another guy sitting on the bench in street clothes.

“It happens to us a lot,” Gary Payton said.

Payton is the only starter to play in every game, yet he hasn’t emerged unscathed. He suffered a strained neck Friday.

“I’m not surprised at anything,” he said of Bryant’s latest injury. “Kobe’s a tough guy, I know he’ll be back.”

The question is, who will be next?

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.