For the final time in his career, Kobe Bryant will take the court tonight at Staples Center. The city of Los Angeles and basketball fans everywhere are mourning his retirement, even though the player we know as the Black Mamba hasn't been on the court for a few years.
Ever since Kobe tore his Achilles tendon 3 years ago yesterday while willing the Lakers to an improbable playoff berth, he just hasn't been in the same guy out there. The competitive spirit and “Mamba Mentality” is still there, but Kobe's athletic dominance has been robbed from him.
His shooting percentage, points per game, and player efficiency numbers have all dramatically decreased in the 106 games Bryant has played after suffering the injury. Even in the moment, Kobe knew deep down that it was over.
In a brilliant article by ESPN's Baxter Holmes, Bryant recalled feeling helpless after feeling what he described as a “kick” to the back of the leg.
“The Achilles is like the beast in sports that every athlete fears,” Bryant says today. “It's a long recovery. Nobody has really been the same when they come back from it – if they come back from it – and here I am dealing with this s**t. I don't know if I can. I'm tired as hell. I knew how much it took just to get to this situation now, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this s**t.”
RELATED: No. 8 Versus No. 24: Which Kobe Was Better?
One of the craziest parts of the story is Kobe's desperate attempt to pull his Achilles back down into place while feeling it roll up his leg.
“I just tried to buy a little bit of time,” Bryant says now with a laugh. “I was trying to figure out a way to play around it because if I can walk on my heel, maybe I can get around it because I don't have to get up on my toe. I had worked so hard to get us there. I'll be damned if we lose this f***ing game and all that hard work goes to s**t. I tried to finish the job.”
After incredibly sinking a pair of free throws after enduring the injury, Kobe was desperate to get back in the game. He even attempted to convince trainer Gary Vitti to tape his foot so he could try to go back in.
Holmes artfully painted the picture of the melancholy situation in the locker room after a heartbroken Kobe is told that it was indeed ruptured.
In the training room, Bryant, still in his jersey, sits on the edge of a training table, surrounded by members of the team's athletic training staff. (Lakers trainer Gary) Vitti performs a Thompson test: squeezing Bryant's left calf. If Bryant's foot does not flex toward the floor, his Achilles is gone. The test is positive. Vitti tells Bryant the news. The room full of people is still, silent. Bryant hurls two Gatorade bottles, both full, at the wall. One explodes. There are tears in Bryant's eyes.
Despite the immense negative impact the injury had on the last three seasons of his career, Bryant wouldn't have done anything differently.
“I believe that when you're up against a challenge, you have to push yourself to the limit,” he says. “You have to push yourself until you see what your limits are and you see what you're capable of doing and what you're capable of not doing. Sometimes, you push so hard that you break. But then, when you break, you see what you're made of yet again because you have to rebuild yourself again. But I'd never be able to forgive myself had we not made the playoffs. If I did not push as hard as I could have, I would never know how much I had left in the tank, and I would never be able to forgive myself for that.”
Always the ultimate competitor, that Mamba.
Follow Us
Subscribe