Two minutes
left in the fourth quarter, Kobe Bryant went down. It looked as if he just
slipped but Lakers fans soon found out it was much worse. Kobe rose to his feet
and asked Harrison Barnes if he had “kicked” him. Harrison said “no” and Kobe
immediately knew he had torn his achilles. This for those of you that have
experienced this injury before know how dreading and horrendous this injury
actually is. Could this be the end of Kobe’s career?
I have been
a huge Kobe fan ever since he came into the NBA as a 17 year old teen. Kobe
Bryant is and always has been one of if not the biggest workout warrior the NBA
has seen since Jordan. With that said, it can be assumed that Kobe will try and
come back to the league as fast as possible to try and win another ring. This
brings up some interesting points. Those points being: should he come back that
early? Will this push or hurt his chances of playing longer? Will he ever be
the same player that he was before the injury?
First
point, I honestly believe Kobe should take all the time possible to come back.
He should not try and be ready for the beginning of the season because if
anything it will derail the rest of his career. The achillies is no joke and it
will affect his game for the rest of however long he plays. When you injure
something like that, you become scared to jump off your leg or put any type of
pressure on it.
Others may
ask if this long break, while it looks like a bad thing, might be a blessing in
disguise. His knees and body has endured torture throughout his career and this
break might be just that, a nice break. Even with this break, however, he will
never be the same player that he was. He will come close because of the effort
and training he will put in. But he will never be the same.
The problem
with Kobe is that he does not want people to see him not be elite. This is why I believe that he will come back next year, whenever that my be, and retire the year after. Kobe can easily continue playing after he comes back and average 18-20 points but he would not be ok with that. As much as it hurts me to say this, I guess Kobe will never be able to catch Jordan in rings. Regardless, what a career.
P.S. If you do not follow Kobe on any type of social media. Go out and follow him because he is hilarious.
Lindrit Shkodra
is originally from Diber, Macedonia but lives in Maple Shade, NJ. He is a
freshman in the Sports Management program and is currently the General
Understudy of the Drexel Sports Management Student Union. On the weekends he
works at the Wegmans in Mount Laurel and on the weekdays he interns with Ron
Jaworski’s Celebrity Golf Challenge. Follow Lindrit on Twitter @LindritShkodra.
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