Before beginning the journey toward overcoming any goal, the biggest question facing one is if the reward at the end of it all is worth the time and effort in order to get there– I believe the fancy term for it is quantitative risk assessment.
For Kobe Bryant, he has given himself seven months after announcing he will officially sit out the rest of the 2013-14 season (18 games), yesterday.
Seven months for himself to strengthen that left leg enough where it won’t be susceptible to further injury come opening day.
Seven months for the Lakers front office to re-tool the roster to a point where a 48-point shellacking at the hands of the Clippers won’t be an option anymore.
Seven month to convert anguish to revenge.
“Personally, that’d be hard for me to understand happening twice.”
That was Kobe’s response to the press in regards to the rumor of his former coach Phil Jackson heading to New York Knicks as the President of Basketball Operations.
But for me, I interpreted the quote a little differently. Read it again: “Personally, that’d be hard for me to understand happening twice.”
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When it initially took Kobe eight months to recover from the torn Achilles he suffered while driving against Harrison Barnes, it was easy to be patient, as it doesn’t take a saint to sympathize with the fact that an Achilles injury is one of the most severe injuries in professional sports.
In the six games Kobe played in since his much-anticipated return, he averaged a very human 13.8 points, 6.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game. In the sixth game against the Memphis Grizzlies, he suffered another injury; this time it was the knee, and we haven’t seen him since.
Or to paraphrase the man himself, it happened twice. And it was even harder to understand the second time around.
On neither play when he got injured was it the defender’s fault. There was no maliciousness intent on the part of Harrison Barnes nor Tony Allen. That’s the most difficult part to cope with about this whole ordeal as a life-long fan: the man who seemed indestructible for the better part of 17 years, suddenly crumbled to the ground at the conclusion of a mundane play not once, but twice.
Next Page: The Uncertainty Surrounding Kobe Bryant’s Return