Kobe Bryant ‘Doing Well,’ Hasn’t Had Any Setbacks


by Leo Sepkowitz | @LeoSepkowitz

Kobe Bryant has been working to get back to full strength all summer, and it looks like the he’s making solid progress in his rehab. Per InsideTheLakers:

“Kobe Bryant continued rehabbing on his surgically repaired left Achilles tendon, the latest involving running at 75 percent of his body weight on a treadmill. Lakers athletic trainer Gary Vitti expects Bryant remains a ‘few weeks away’ before advancing to full-weight bearing running, though he added ‘there’s no projected date’ on whether Bryant could play in the Lakers’ season opener Oct. 29 against the Clippers. It all fits the Lakers’ conservative approach in ensuring Bryant doesn’t return from an injury he suffered April 12 before it fully heals. ‘He’s doing well and has had no setbacks,’ Vitti said Thursday at his trainer’s office at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo in a wide-ranging interview with this newspaper. ‘He’ll be ready when he’s ready. Nobody has a crystal ball on this thing.’ ‘He doesn’t have injuries in the rest of his body,’ Vitti said of Bryant. ‘When a guy has been out for a long time, that neuromuscular system shuts down and the nerves don’t fire the muscles in the right pattern in the right way. We have to get this whole thing working again. Think of him as a Ferrari. He’s a machine. If those pistons aren’t firing in the right position and in the right pattern, the timing is off. Other structures can be taking loads that aren’t built for that. The rehab is not directly solely to the Achilles tendon.’ ‘He’s had a good surgery, good rehab and he’s motivated about it. He’s smart,’ Vitti said of Bryant. ‘You can’t get ahead of the game on this thing, but you can get behind. He never got behind.’”