Judging from the faces in the locker room, you probably couldn't tell that the Los Angeles Lakers pulled off another pivotal victory over the Golden State Warriors a short while ago to hold onto the 8th seed in the Western Conference for another night. That's because their leader, Kobe Bryant, suffered what is initially being reported as a "possible torn left Achilles" tendon. An MRI on Saturday will be done to confirm the injury. As you can see in the above video at the 14-second mark, Bryant goes down immediately, grabs his Achilles and eventually limps off the court without any assistance.
Following the game, Kobe spoke about the moment, saying, "I made a move I’ve made a million times, and [the Achilles] just popped." Close friend and teammate Pau Gasol was seen with tears in his eyes when speaking about the possibility of Bryant's season coming to an end. "He doesn't deserve it," Gasol said.
Back in August 2007, Elton Brand suffered the same injury and missed eight months, however, Ken Berger of CBS claims that the usual timetable for recovery takes at least six months. And don't even mention the word retirement. Bryant vehemently denied that this injury would signal the end of his career. According to Arash Markazi of ESPN LA, Bryant is already mapping out what's next for him: "MRI, surgery and then recovery."
And of course, in true warrior fashion, Kobe left with these encouraging words: “It’s fueling me. It’s fueling me. I can feel it already.”
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