Richard Mackson – USA Today Sports Images
One of the first things that people started to call into question about Kobe Bryant’s torn Achilles tendon was the workload that he’s endured this season at 34 years old and in his 17th NBA season. He’s played a ton of minutes this season as a whole, but as they’ve been fighting to make the playoffs over the last couple of weeks, he had been playing an absurd amount of minutes.
For the season, Bryant has been averaging 38.6 minutes per game. That’s a pretty large chunk of minutes for most players in the NBA, but especially for a player with as many miles on their legs as Kobe has. Over the six games he played in April, though, that number increased dramatically to 45.2 minutes per game, including one game where he played all 48 minutes and two games where he sat for less than a minute at the very end of the game.
Part of the reason that Kobe has been playing that many minutes lately is because he demands to do so. Bryant is one of the fiercest competitors to ever play the game of basketball, so there’s no way he wants to be on the bench when he’s trying to get his team into the playoffs. However, some of the blame has to go to head coach Mike D’Antoni, as well. At some point, D’Antoni should have rested him.
How much did Bryant’s fatigue factor into his injury, though?
It’s naïve to think that it played absolutely no part in Bryant’s injury. Tired body parts are obviously a little bit more susceptible to injury. However, it’s also naïve to think that Kobe’s recent workload is the sole reason that he got hurt. A lot of what happened to Bryant on Friday night was just a freak accident. Bryant even said after the game that it was a move he’d made countless times and his Achilles just popped that one time. Basketball is a game that puts tremendous force on a person’s body in ways that aren’t necessarily natural. Fatigue doesn’t matter in that regard.
There’s no denying that the smart move by both D’Antoni and Bryant would have been to give Kobe a little more rest than he had been getting. Despite that, there’s no way that the fact that Bryant had been playing so much was the sole cause of his injury. It may have been a contributing factor, but to say it’s more than that is simply wrong.
Cody Williams is a Senior NBA Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20 and like his Facebook page.
