When Kobe Bryant went down with what in all likelihood is a torn Achilles injury with three minutes to play in the Lakers’ win over the Warriors on Friday, it wasn’t his first injury of the night.
As seen in the video clip above, Bryant suffered minor injuries to his knee and his foot over the course of the game, and the overcompensation for them more than anything else may have contributed to the very serious injury that ended his season.
Phil Jackson weighed in on Bryant’s injury via Twitter, and mentioned this while briefly wondering what might have been if Bryant had shut it down for the night after the first two “mishaps.”Kobe wasn’t going to let the Lakers miss the playoffs. We watched him go thru 3 anguishing plays-the last one devastating…
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) April 13, 2013
if he had gone to the bench after the 2nd mishap? Like Rose ofThe Bulls one can guess, but what’s done is done. Reality not maybe is zen
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) April 13, 2013
Second guessing is pointless here, because we all know Bryant was going to play as long as he could walk. He said afterward in his postgame press conference that he couldn’t, and that’s the only reason he came out of that game.
Much has been made of Mike D’Antoni’s lack of control over Bryant’s minutes being one of the reasons for the injury, but the awkward way he was injured twice before on this night likely had far more to do with it -- especially with an injury like a torn Achilles that can happen with essentially no warning at all.
