Kobe Bryant still hopes to be ready to return to action from his torn Achilles tendon by opening day next season and the Los Angeles Lakers star has turned to soccer legend David Beckham for assistance.
Beckham tore his Achilles in 2010, but was able to make a quick and strong return to action.
“Becks and I have grown to be pretty close since he’s been playing in Los Angeles the last five years,” Bryant told ESPN while vacationing in Brazil. "He and I talked for quite a bit about his process, and his recovery. He hasn't had any issues with it since. He's won several championships since the injury, so I'm pretty encouraged by that."
Bryant was injured on April 12 in a win over the Golden State Warriors and surgery the very next day, but his prognosis for returning to action remains somewhere between six and nine months.
But not if Beckham can help it. "It's going well," Bryant told ESPN of his recovery. "I'm pretty much two months out of surgery, and I'm walking. I can get up on my toes. I'm pleased with how it's going so far."
That recovery, Bryant now admits, has proven to be as mental as it is physical and there have been days when even he has doubted himself.
"You have to allow yourself to think that, because it keeps you on edge,” he told ESPN. “It keeps you motivated. It keeps you strong. I think for me, once I started hearing everybody else say, 'Well, maybe this is it. Maybe this is too much' — that's what really gave me the determination to see if I can prove them wrong."
In more ways than one, this rates as a key summer for the Lakers and Bryant is keeping close tabs on it own.
“We don't know what direction we're going yet but one thing I know about the Laker organization is that they're very committed to making sure that we have a team on the floor that's a competitive team,” Bryant said of the team’s hopes to resign free agent center Dwight Howard.
"Which direction that's going to be, whether it's with Dwight or not, I don't know. We'll just have to see," he added.
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