His Body in Need of Repair Again, Kobe Bryant's Mind Will Determine NBA Future
LOS ANGELES — On a day for everyone to dissect the latest breakdown of Kobe Bryant's body, it's actually far more relevant to analyze his mind.
A strong mind is his only chance for this to end well.
Of course, his worn-down body has to cooperate better than it has, but there's no way Bryant will meet his goal of going out on his terms if the mind is not first willing and able.
"When you're a cerebral basketball player, you can always be effective," LeBron James said after Cleveland's Jan. 15 game versus the Lakers that was Bryant's last full one this season—and the one in which Bryant had a career-high 17 assists in his 1,279th regular-season game.
"Our game is so fascinated with guys that can run as fast as you can or jump as high as you can," James added. "People forget about the mind of the game—which is really the most important."
Bryant's determination has been widely hailed as part of his greatness. It's at the core of everything from his playing through pain to his immaculate fundamentals.
Next season more than ever, Bryant's basketball IQ will be his guiding light on the court. Problem is, Bryant has a mental marathon to run before he even graduates to thinking about the game again.
Bryant underwent surgery Wednesday to repair a tear in his right rotator cuff, the group of muscles and tendons that keep your arm from falling out of your shoulder. The Lakers announced Bryant "will be out for approximately nine months," a conservative projection that goes a long way to ensuring that Bryant will meet his habitual goal of beating the doctor's recovery timeline.
In this case, the nine-month reference alludes to the general guideline that even if the shoulder is fully healed in six months, the risks of physical contact are not recommended for another three months. That's why Bryant's surgeon, Neal ElAttrache, said, per the Lakers' press release, "If all goes as expected, he should be ready for the start of the season." The NBA season will start in late October, nine months from now.
That said, Bryant's right shoulder was not the most pristine one in the first place. It's unrealistic to expect this piece of his equipment to set healing-time records after its integrity has been compromised so much in the past.
The shoulder has bothered Bryant periodically for most of his career, including enough this season to get an ultrasound exam. The first surgery Bryant ever had was to that shooting shoulder in 2003, after suffering from soreness in the joint for years before that.
The '03 procedure removed an inflamed bursa and trimmed a frayed labrum and is completely related in a basic sense to this one: The bursa cushions the area around the rotator cuff in the shoulder.
That surgery took less than an hour; this one took two. And the recovery from rotator cuff surgery is decidedly not pleasant. Let's be clear about that before anyone assumes Bryant is now pain-free and gallivanting off to begin his Rocky workout montage for another dramatic comeback.
This is why Bryant's mental willpower is the most important thing.
After one of the most tedious recoveries you can have after rupturing his Achilles in April 2013, Bryant now has to struggle through this—which includes ongoing pain for months, wearing a sling and not being able to drive. It also involves a rehab more mind-numbing at the start (hand squeezing, shoulder shrugs) than intense.
The knowledge of how limiting and taxing this shoulder recovery will be—stemming from the slow healing required after he fractured his knee in December 2013—prompted Bryant's statement in The Players' Tribune about having to rally and rehab a third season-ending injury in three years: "I feel like I just returned a 100-yard kickoff in the last two minutes of the Super Bowl to win it all only to have my run called back by a flag on the play."
Leave it to Kobe to make a new sort of history at the end of a career marked by the ability to overcome his body's limitations, a skill his former coach Phil Jackson deemed as flat-out superior to Michael Jordan. New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera rehabbed from a torn ACL just to come back and have one last season; Bryant is in the midst of his third rehab in hopes of going out on his terms.
Bryant's broader legacy is obviously secure. What he must hope for now is that people will remember his final seasons for how he kept getting knocked down but kept getting back up.
That's a lot different from playing in pain and performing under pressure. And it requires a great level of maturity.
That perspective is most likely what Bryant will, in his own mind, remember most about these final years of his career.
All the sitting and all the losing are simply not part of the inherent Kobe DNA. He has to adapt in ways that have nothing to do with his physical being.
On that night two weeks ago when LeBron was praising Kobe's mind, there was Kobe, thanking Phil Jackson for the development that has been going on up there.
"I actually did listen to some of the Zen stuff that he would throw out there—being present, being mindful," Bryant said. "Being able to detach yourself from the situation and just be is something that has really helped me throughout this entire season. It's the ability to be calm and to see the big picture and just to be present."
Jackson taught Bryant to appreciate the moment—whether a championship moment or one quite unnatural.
Every moment has value, offers growth and shows strength—including the crippling setback or the tedious rehab session—if you embrace it instead of running from it.
Kobe will be tasked to find that value again. It's a test that is sure to challenge his robust mind as much as that broken body.
Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.
