LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant pulled at the black sleeve that had been on his left calf, contorting his body and twisting his face.
He looked a little like a kid hoping no one was watching, determined to play freely and intent on quickly peeling off the coat he'd been told to wear because it was cold outside.
He looked a lot like Bryant himself, treating that unwanted calf sleeve as if it were an arm sling for his rotator cuff tear...or a crutch for his tibial plateau fracture...or a boot for his Achilles tendon rupture.
Bryant sat back on the bench Wednesday night as the Lakers opened the season against Minnesota and tugged harder a few more times.
He got that sleeve down over his foot and wore a look of satisfaction even before he went back in and lit up the second quarter of his first NBA game in more than nine months.
How much of Bryant's life has been spent trying to get his body right the past three years? Enough hours—including the past two weeks of impatiently waiting for the pain to check out of that bruised calf—so that his body was actually feeling good, feeling strong. ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Kevin Ding
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