Kobe Bryant's injury creates an uncertain future for superstar

I'm not the type who likes to drive by the wreckage on the road and try to get a better look at what has befallen some other unfortunate person. I usually say a quick prayer and keep it moving.

But early Saturday morning, while watching the ESPN telecast that originates from Los Angeles, I heard one of the anchors drop the stunning news: Kobe Bryant, 34, the greatest player of his generation and arguably one of the 10 best players ever, had suffered an Achilles tendon tear.

Ouch.

From that point forward, nothing else that transpired in the world of sports mattered, at least not to ESPN, and I was hooked. I can't tell you how many times I watched Bryant crumpling to the floor and reaching for his left ankle after what seemed an innocuous move we've seen him make thousands of times.

Bryant had surgery Saturday, ending his season. The Lakers said it's realistic he could be ready for next season's opener. Realistic, maybe. Optimistic, certainly.

Love him or loathe him, for the 17 years he's been in the NBA - half his lifetime - Bryant has carved out an iconic career. Whether he was feuding with Shaquille O'Neal or flying back and forth from a courtroom, Bryant, night in and night out, has been excellence personified on the court.

He is a five-time NBA champion with two Finals MVPs, one regular-season MVP, and 15 All-Star Game appearances. He's the fourth all-time leading scorer (31,617) and, assuming he stayed healthy, would have almost certainly supplanted Michael Jordan (32,292) in 2013-14 as No. 3 all time.

The Lower Merion product, who had talked about retiring at the end of next season, has accomplished all of these things while driven by an ironclad desire to be the best. In an era in which we hear far too often about athletes and coaches who let minutia, such as personality conflicts, get in the way of success on the court, Bryant simply soldiered on, eager to confront and, ultimately, squash whatever stood in his path toward greatness.

But as great as those numbers are, this injury - one of those horrible soft-tissue injuries so difficult to overcome - could place before Bryant something that even he cannot overcome.

Andrew Bynum notwithstanding, we've become seduced by seeing athletes such as Adrian Peterson make a mockery of injuries once thought to be career-ending. For those of us who remember when a torn anterior cruciate ligament meant retirement, Peterson's coming up nine yards shy of breaking the NFL rushing record last season, less than a year after suffering his injury, is still a head-scratcher.

But Peterson was 27. Bryant, who is owed more than $30 million next season from the Lakers, turns 35 this summer. Amazingly, Bryant was averaging 38.6 minutes per game this season, tied for second in the league, and playing at an extremely high level.

But this doesn't negate the fact that he will be a rehabbing athlete with more than 54,000 minutes played behind him.

The arduous rehab from such an injury can take up to a year, so Bryant could be looking at returning at close to age 36. In the interim, the Lakers, despite their current optimism, will have to give serious consideration to amnestying Bryant - once thought to be impossible - because they have to build a better basketball team than the one that is fighting for its life to qualify as the final seed in the Western Conference. So for the first time in his career, Bryant's future on the court is not entirely under his control.

As so many athletes do, Bryant took to social media following his injury and posted this to his Facebook page:

"After all the venting, a real perspective sets in," Bryant posted. "There are far greater issues/challenges in the world than a torn Achilles. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, find the silver lining and get to work with the same belief, same drive and same conviction as ever. One day, the beginning of a new career journey will commence. Today is not that day."

It's not today Bryant has to be concerned about. It's the unknown of tomorrow.