Kobe on latest injury: Like a 100-yard Super Bowl kick return being called back
Kobe Bryant's season will more than likely be over when he undergoes surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff on Wednesday.
It's a shame considering what Bryant has battled back from over the past couple of seasons.
Bryant's 2012-13 season ended on the eve of the playoffs due to a torn Achilles. He returned 20 games into the 2013-14 season only to suffer a fracture in his leg just six games in. He was ready for the start of the 2014-15 season but never quite found a groove amid unrelenting fatigue, culminating with this latest setback.
To battle back so many times only to be put back on the shelf has to be unspeakably frustrating. Bryant summed it up about as well as can be with a brief post at The Players' Tribune on Tuesday:
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.
Yeah, that's probably about the feeling.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar will reportedly try to come back one more time, definitively returning for 2015-16. The $25 million owed to him for that season is a good motivator, but so, too, is going out on a better note than this, something the legacy-conscious Bryant has surely considered.
Here's hoping for a more fitting exit for the league's third all-time leading scorer next time around.