Most prominent athletes have a hard time performing well while nursing an injury.

These sports superstars often stay away from competitions until their injuries fully heal, admittedly afraid that their career will be placed in jeopardy if they suit up.

Then again, some athletes are made of sterner stuff. They are able to endure any injury or pain and astonishingly, even perform at a high level in times of physical adversity.

Three-time Manila visitor Kobe Bryant of the reigning National Basketball Association (NBA) champion Los Angeles Lakers is among the tough-as-nail global athletes.

Bryant, it seems, has a high threshold of pain. In fact, some say he plays better with pain.

Notwithstanding an assortment of injuries throughout his 13 NBA seasons, the durable 6-7 guard has appeared in 948 out of a possible 1,034 regular-season games. That’s an astonishing 91.7 percent attendance record. Moreover, a few of his DNPs (did not play) were due to NBA suspensions and not injury-related.

In his last two NBA campaigns, Bryant has completed the entire 82-game regular schedule each time. During the same two-year span, he also has been a perfect 44-of-44 (21 in 2008 and 23 in 2009) in playoff assignments as the Lakers reached the NBA Finals on both occasions.

Kobe’s ironman effort becomes even more remarkable when you consider the fact that the Lakers star had played for more than two years – or since February 2007 (midway through the 2007-08 regular wars) – with a dislocated right ring finger without undergoing any surgery.

During the time, Bryant played in the 2008 NBA Finals (when Boston won in six games), earned an Olympic gold medal during the 2008 Beijing Games, shared MVP honors with Shaquille O’Neal (then with Phoenix but now with Cleveland following last month’s trade) during the 2009 NBA All-Star Game last February and collected his first-ever NBA Finals MVP award in securing his fourth overall NBA championship ring (the first without Shaq by his side) last month.

During his Nike press conference at the Manila Peninsula Hotel last July 21, I asked Kobe if he will be undergoing an operation during the offseason to repair the dislocated ring finger or will he simply allow the injured finger to heal by itself.

“I aint touching it (the dislocated finger),” declared Bryant. “I have had some success with it and I am not going to mess it up. If it aint broke, why fix it?

So far this summer, LA and Houston have exchanged small forwards in a de facto free-agent swap. The Lakers lost Finals starter Trevor Ariza to the Rockets but gained explosive Ron Artest from the Texas squad (which will play without the injured stars Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady possibly for the entire 2009-10 wars) in separate free-agent deals.

Still, for the Lakers to have any chance of repeating as NBA champions next June, it’s imperative for them to re-sign unrestricted free-agent forward Lamar Odom.

The 6-10 Odom is expected to take a pay cut after bankrolling $14.1 million last season. He feels he’s being shortchanged by the Lakers’ offer of $36 million over four years and is exploring the possibility of joining forces with Dwyane Wade once again in Miami (the two played together with the Heat in 2003-04) on a five-year, $34-million deal (the equivalent of the midlevel salary cap exemption). There’s no state income tax in Florida.

For Bryant, he’s expected to ink a three-year contract extension before the start of training camp in October.

Bryant, who turns 31 next month, is eligible for a contract extension worth anywhere between 86 million and $91 million. He has two years and $47.8 million left – including $23 million in 2009-10 – on the seven-year, $136.4 million pact that he signed in the summer of 2004.