BURN MY EYEBALLS OUT
Lower Merion High School senior, Kobe Bryant working out for the Boston Celtics at a 1996 pre-draft camp. Oh, Hell on Earth.
(via BobbyOnealGibbs)
If you look at the back of your hand, you’ll notice tendons, ligaments. Probably a vein or two. Definitely some muscle.
Now, look at the photo above again.
From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
With those torn ligaments in his right wrist – an injury that should’ve required surgery and three months of rehabilitation – Bryant is forever one collision from serious seasonal consequences. When he fails to keep the wrist moving during a game, it will swell significantly.
Kobe Bryant’s ability to play through pain and significant injury is admirable, dare I say inspiring. We’re at the point in Bryant’s career where any non-catastrophic injury is written off as a relative non-factor - never to keep him from missing time - and all of his catastrophic injuries are written off as non-catastrophic.
He’s an absolute warrior. Our memories of Kobe scoring, and winning titles, on a myriad of injuries will balloon like a tall tale. “Remember the time Kobe scored 44 with two left arms? Yeah, his right arm got shot off by a bazooka. He bought a left arm on the German black market, had it sewn on, and hung 44 on Ruben Patterson.”
Of course, Bryant’s willingness to battle while wounded is, in part, a pointed strategy in his ongoing Résumé War with Michael Jordan. Kobe’s legacy will undoubtedly benefit from every game he has played and will play with over the course of his career.
From Bill Simmons of Grantland:
Kobe is a tough dude. Gotta hand it to him - he plays with legit injuries about as well as NBA player I can remember.
