Amid the excitement of joining the Los Angeles Lakers, veteran guard Wesley Matthews offered an emotional remembrance of how Lakers icon Kobe Bryant helped him after tearing his Achilles in 2015.
Matthews got emotional thinking back to that moment, and wishes he could thank Kobe for making that call that he didn’t have to, for helping to motivate Matthews.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) November 24, 2020
That injury took place when Matthews was playing for the Portland Trail Blazers on March 5, 2015. In the midst of driving to the basket during a game against the Dallas Mavericks, Matthews went down in agony.
During the subsequent offseason, Matthews signed with the Mavericks and went on to play for three other NBA teams before joining the Lakers.
Bryant undoubtedly felt connected to Matthews’ plight after also having suffered an Achilles tear just two years before near the end of the 2012-13 regular season. Bryant did return and completed 20 years with the Lakers before his retirement in 2016.
The painful loss of Bryant in a January helicopter crash prevents Matthews from being able to truly tell him how much of an impact his motivation had on making a comeback.
Yet, one way that Matthews can pay tribute to the memory of Bryant is by emulating the latter’s ferocious dedication to the game and his undying hunger to win a championship. That would be an honor that Bryant himself would appreciate.
