OP I tore mine in March, two weeks before Kobe did, and I was wearing Kobe 6's when I tore mine, so the whole time I had to hear "Oh you tore yours like Kobe right"? Mine happened on a non contact play. I was driving to the basketball and all I heard was a pop. I had just passed the defender so I thought he tripped me and I was going to f*** him up for pulling a dirty move. I tried to get up and I couldn't stand up, and as im yelling at the guy, everyone else is telling me that he didn't trip me. I didn't know if I was embarrassed that I fell and I couldn't stand or I was in shock but I didn't know what to do. I've never been injured in my life and to be honest I wasn't in pain. I thought maybe I rolled my ankle badly, so I literally dragged my leg all the way to the car because I couldn't move my foot at all. I iced it at home while reading WebMD on my phone because I didn't know what was wrong. It started to swell pretty bad and I decided to drive myself to the ER. After getting a MRI, it was shown that I had a full rupture of my left Achilles.
After weighing my options over the weekend, I decided to go the non surgical route and get casted. I was in my first cast for 3 weeks and it was positioned at a downward angle to enable the tendon to reattach itself. It was horrible trying to stand with crutches or take a shower with the cast in the position. 3 weeks later, I was fitted for a new cast and the angle wasn't as bad. 3 weeks later I was put in a CAM Boot and it was trying to learn how to walk again. I was in the boot for 2 weeks before the doctor signed me up for physical therapy. I went to PT for a month and to be honest it was pretty much BS. I did a lot of band exercises and exercises on the reformer machine, but you can do that at home. The most beneficial part for me was getting the massages and stem treatment because that broke up all the scar tissue that had built up. I had gained 10 lbs because of inactivity so as soon as I was put in my boot I hit the gym to work on my upper body and when I started PT, I would do cardio on the Bike and Elliptical. It's been about 9 months but besides my legs, I feel like I am in the best overall shape of my life. I was in basketball shape when I got injured, but health wise I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was 9 months ago.
Last Friday was the first time I played ball and I did a lot better than expected. My game was predicated on speed and quickness before the injury and now I'm modeling my game after Z-Bo lol. I still had some of my quickness and I only had to explode once and I got up there, just not as high as before lol. Im not as quick moving laterally, but I think that will come with time. When I was running outside or on the treadmill, it was only straight and not side to side, so im working on ladder drills right now. I didn't think of my injury when I played, but you just now it doesn't feel the same. You can't play timid or else you're just going to end up hurting yourself. I did wear an ankle brace and played in high tops, so I had the support to ensure my confidence in myself. I still need to work on my J so I don't have to rely on driving to the basket as much. My prognosis was 8-12 months of recovery time, so I think i'll shut down hooping until Feb so I can have time to change my playing style and get comfortable with it.
as long as you have insurance then live life ....if I stay banged up like Steve Nash then I'll fall back
