Kobe’s Call After Player’s Rough Game

By Mathieu Seguin | Sport editor

In an NBA career, some injuries forever mark a trajectory. One of the most feared is undoubtedly the rupture of the Achilles tendon, which can break the momentum of a player and force him to a long reconstruction. Wesley Matthews had the bitter experience in 2015, when he was still wearing the Jersey of Trail Blazers.

That evening, against Dallas, his season suddenly stopped. A blow of the fate that he had already seen hitting a legend: Kobe Bryant, victim of the same evil a few years earlier. But Matthews did not suspect that this drama would also offer him a unique moment, thanks to a phone call from a player he has always admired.

A few hours after his injury, he received an unexpected call. “After the match, my phone rings and it’s Kobe. One of the greatest of all time contacted me after the match in one of my darkest moments ”said Matthews, still marked by emotion. And the most surprising is that they had never made the slightest link before that.

A message from Kobe who changed his rehabilitation

The former Blazer said that he had “no preliminary relationship” with Bryant, only a rivalry on the prosecution. But the “Black Mamba” knew too well what such an ordeal represented. His advice was simple but deep: “Feel the pain. Cry, shout, live all the emotions you feel. But know that you’re going to get out of it. It’s going to be hard, but you’re going to get there ”. Words that were going to become a mantra during his rehabilitation.

Matthews explained that the first months were extremely restrictive. He had to keep his leg raised seventeen hours a day, a real ordeal. “The best I could do for myself was doing nothing. And it’s hard “he recognized. To hold, he decided to analyze Kobe’s rehabilitation in the smallest detail, constantly watching videos of his exercises and his progressive return.

A little more than seven months after his accident, Matthews finally finds the prosecution, this time in the Mavericks jersey. And fate has done things well: his first opponent is… Kobe Bryant. After the match, the legend slips a word that will remain engraved in his memory: “I’m not surprised”. For Matthews, this moment was almost stronger than a victory or a trophy.

This compliment, coming from someone who knew better than anyone what it means to come back from such an injury, has had invaluable value. Matthews described it as one of the biggest brands of respect for his career. More than a simple memory, it has become a source of permanent inspiration.