Kobe Bryant Injury: 5 Things To Know About Kobe’s Torn Achilles

In a 118-116 win over the Golden State Warriors on Friday, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant suffered a torn Achilles with 3:06 left to play in the game.

1. It was the third fall he took in the game.

The first left him clutching his knee, the second his ankle. On the third and final one, he caught the ball on the left side of the perimeter and started to drive toward the basket, off of his left foot, which appeared to buckle beneath him. He crumpled to the floor, clutching at his heel, while his defender Harrison Barnes was called for a foul. Bryant hit the two free throws coming as a consequence of the play before limping off the court.

2. He vented on Facebook.

"This is such BS!" he wrote. "All the training and sacrifice just flew out the window with one step that I've done millions of times! The frustration is unbearable. The anger is rage. Why the hell did this happen ?!? Makes no damn sense. Now I'm supposed to come back from this and be the same player Or better at 35?!? How in the world am I supposed to do that?? I have NO CLUE...It's 3:30am, my foot feels like dead weight, my head is spinning from the pain meds and I'm wide awake."

Bryant also gave a teary-eyed interview to reporters after the game.

3. The record of other NBA players who suffered Achilles tears is not particularly encouraging.

A look at the record of Achilles tears in the NBA shows that of the 11 players who suffered the injury in the last two decades, four never played again. Dominique Wilkins may be considered a model for Kobe - Wilkins ruptured his Achilles at 32 and made the All-Star team twice after returning, and played until age 39. The injury usually requires between six to nine months of rehabilitation after surgery.

4. It's suspected that this season's stresses had to do with the injury, or at least with the likelihood of it occurring.

34-year-old Bryant is in his 17^th NBA season, and had played 3,013 minutes. He's the first player age 34 or older to play more than 3,000 minutes in an NBA season since 2002-03, when Michael Jordan and Gary Payton did so. As the Lakers have fought fiercely for a playoff slot, he was pushing himself especially hard: in his past seven games, Bryant played 95 percent of the minutes, compared to 80 percent of the minutes in the first 71 games of the season.

5. Lebron tweeted about the injury.

"Damn man I feel bad for @kobebryant" Lebron wrote. Sports Illustrated featured tweets by a number of other professional athletes offering support to Bryant.