It’s one of the most emotionally charged Facebook posts ever written by a superstar athlete.
At 3:30 a.m on Saturday, just hours after crumpling to the floor with a torn left Achilles’ tendon in a win against Golden State, Kobe Bryant expressed a bewildering range of emotions – confidence, doubt, rage, resolve – while coming to grips with the repercussions of a season-ending injury at age 34. “Why the hell did this happen ?!?,” he wrote. “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??”
Later in the post, Bryant decides he won’t get too down on himself because “there are far greater issues/challenges in the world than a torn Achilles.” Indeed, the five-time world champion doesn’t have to look far to see them. In the 71, 738 comments left in response to his post is an amazing array of inspirational stories left by people who have wrestled with issues far more grave than Bryant’s.
It’s clear Kobe Bryant’s renowned work ethic has been a great inspiration to his fans over the years. It’s also clear that those same fans could inspire Bryant more than he ever thought possible. If he takes time to read their stories.
Here are the top 10 most inspirational stories left on his Facebook page:
10. Jenni Norris Glasco: My 14 year old cousin broke her neck, shattered it cheer leading. The drs told her parents the best they can hope for is for her to breathe on her own and would be paralyzed from the chin down… Yesterday 22days after crushing her spinal cord and losing 99percent of the nerve function, she walked…20 steps. Like I said nothing is impossible!
9. Kat Corey kobe my husband is a devoted Laker fan and knows how u feel. He became a quadraplegic at the age of 51 when a crane operator at his work dropped a 750 lb air conditioner on his head.doctors said he would never walk again and or have very minimal use of his hands if he got anything back at all.He has your mentality he didnt listen to them he rehabed for 2 years and kept pushing everg day
and today he walks drives and try’s to do everything he can.
nothing is impossible when you believe in yourself, and you do.
8. Greg Mahosky Kobe, I am a 56 year old professional tennis instructor. I had a full tear of my my achilles tendon 2 years ago and was back on court playing full out in 3 months. I was teaching out of a wheel chair three days after surgery because I had to pay my bills as I don’t have a contract worth millions of dollars. Two months ago I was diagnosed with Chordoma Cancer and had to move from Toledo to Boston for six weeks of treatment, now I have two weeks for surgery and two more weeks of radiation treatment again to save my life. I was really rooting for you and the Lakers to make the playoffs and you did a hell of a job getting them there. But don’t complain about your bad break. There are people that look up to you that are much worse off. Count your blessing along with your championship rings. I would love to be where you are, care to trade places??
7. Lisa Rossi Oh what a humble man. You have a right to be angry!!!!! Life sometimes sucks!!!!!! Unfortuntatly we have no control!!!!!Life sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I lost my 27 year old son to cancer in 2011- yes that’s different, but not really…
6. Micki Castillo I feel your pain!! I’m 36 and had a stroke a week ago. Im in rehab now learning how to walk again and use my left hand. It’s very hard but I just take one day at a time. The only reason I’ve made it this far is because of my friends and families thoughts and prayers!!! Oh and lots of hard work in therapy!!! Just hang in there and I will prAy for you!!!! Good luck with everything you will have to go thru!!
5. Jonathon Ulmem: me and my wife where in a house fire in which she sustained 5 metal plates and 30 screws in her leg and ankle and for months she was determined to somewhat walk again so she could walk and hold our sons…… she did it 6 months later….she may never walk for more than 30 feet at a time but those 30 feet to her feel like 30 miles….its all in the inner strength of someone the will power the courage and kobe you both have it….we will see you on the court next year.
4. Aaron Horsley If this is the real Kobe and if you happen to read this . I am 22 now when I was 17 I was a motocross racer but on 10/10/07 I was hit then drug 200 yards under a truck then ran over literally snapping my spine in half leaving me paralyzed from my chest down . Unless there is some miraculous treatment that comes in the future I will spend the rest of my life in a wheel chair. Don’t give up you have made it to your dream don’t just let it go like its dust in the wind. Show the world you are who they said you were . I will pray for you . If you don’t believe what I said about my accident google my name .
3. Pete Huttlinger So Kobe, you’re 35 years old. When I was 49 years old I was a very good guitarist with a thriving career. I had a stroke on November 3rd, 2010. It was a major stroke. I was completely paralyzed on the right side of my body and I was unable to speak. They did surgery on me and I was on the road to recovery. I could not play the way I used to play but a friend said that maybe I would come back as a better player with a different perspective. Then 6 months later I suffered from End Stage Heart Failure. I was dying. After nearly 5 months in the hospital (without playing my guitar at all) I emerged with a heart pump installed. I had gotten down to 110 pounds. I had to relearn how to walk, eat, use a pen – I couldn’t play a lick on the guitar. Fast forward a little bit – I walked a half marathon in Nashville where I live a year to the day from when I was life-flighted out to Houston, TX. Fast forward a little more – I’m back! I’m playing better in many ways than I ever did before and not so much in other ways. But I have an appreciation for life that I’ve never had before. (And I was always appreciative of my life!). You Can get through this. If I did it, you can too.
2. Brian Bair Kobe. I am a 40 year old diver that has destroyed my left leg five times. The last two where falls that snapped an ankle and a knee cap in half and the last snapped my femur right above my four time broken knee. And both in the last four years. I am coming back slow nut still coming back. I can’t give up. It’s what I do it’s what I know it’s what I love. My head gets me there while my knee catches up. So hang in there and do what you do, know and love no matter what. Cuz that rocking chair will kill you faster than anything. Hang in there Mamba. You have been all I got since Big Game James.
1. T-1000 Hey Kobe I am a robotic assassin from the future with a mimetic poly-alloy that allows my body to copy various 
shapes and other people. I’ve had a really tough time trying to hunt down this kid named John Connor who’s the future savior of mankind, but you won’t catch me giving up. A few minutes ago, while zeroing in on John’s mother like a rabid vulture, I crashed a liquid nitrogen truck into a steel mill! That stuff leaked out of the truck and really froze me up and then things got even worse when a T-800 blasted me with its big-a** gun and shattered me into millions of pieces.
#MeltyOut
