Greg Bailey NewsChannel 36 Sports Director

It doesn't really matter at this point if Raja Bell can play effectively next week or not. His willingness to take a huge personal risk to benefit his team is the kind of crystallizing moment that can change a franchise.

Bell will try to play with a torn ligament in his wrist, forgoing surgery that would leave him on the shelf for 4 months. Bell would then be healthy when he searches for a new contract at the end of the year. This is something out of a 1963 Packers scrapbook. It cuts against everything in the "me first" culture of the NBA.

Make no mistake, Gerald Wallace has played with this kind of pain and then some. He told me last year after he came back from the collapsed lung that it hurt deep inside his body.

Now Bell adds to that, stating emphatically that the Bobcats are worth the sacrifice. It's a statement that everyone should hear.

---