Kobe Bryant is picking up marbles with his toes to rehab his torn Achilles tendon.

Hey Kobe, since you are already picking stuff up with your toes, can you swing by my nephew's house to put away his hot wheels for me? Thanks. It would be great for your rehab, I promise. Just don't slip on any of them.

Kobe Bryant is already ahead of schedule, plans to return by season opener.

Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Kobe is not human. It's only been 3 months since he went under surgery for a torn Achilles tendon and he is already looking at August for full activity.

Kobe on his rehab: "I'm progressing faster than everybody expected so I'm very happy with it." He is targeting mid August for full activity
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) July 10, 2013

As crazy as it sounds, even his orthopedic surgeon confirmed the news. If everything goes accordingly, Kobe will be 2 months ahead of schedule and will be on the floor for the first game of the season.

KOBE to be at full activity in 4 weeks. That means no restrictions but later stages of tendon recovery still remain. Will see him at Game 1.
— Dr. Robert Klapper (@DrRobertKlapper) July 10, 2013

Yay for medical science advancements and illegal German procedures. Thanks for keeping Kobe together.

Via: BTB

Derrick Rose opens up about missing the season and his injury.

It's okay, dude. Come back whenever you are ready, but please be back in top form again. I really missed you.

Kobe Bryant is already back in the gym, shooting hoops again.

FACT: Kobe has never not made me feel like a lazy slob. Dude is insane. Via: Kobe Bryant Instagram

This man had surgery for his TORN ACHILLES just a little over a month ago and he is already back in the gym, getting shots up. DEFINITELY NOT HUMAN.

Russell Westbrook tosses his crutches into a pool, announces "he's back."

Well, there goes my dream for a full off-season of Russell Westbrook's Taylor Swift covers. At least we can watch him play basketball again in the fall. Which is almost just as good.

Andrew Bynum's $60,000 treadmill keeps breaking down.

Via: CSN Philly

After being out for the entire summer and the last 3 months of the season, Andrew Bynum is finally on track to return by the All Star Break. To speed things up, the Philadelphia 76ers bought their $16 million dollar investment, a $60,000 dollar treadmill that can reduce the stress on his knees, while improving his movement.

From Bob Cooney of Philly.com:

... the organization (76ers) invested in a state-of-the-art anti-gravity treadmill that will alleviate up to 80 percent of the person’s body weight. The estimated cost of that piece of equipment has been guessed to be close to $60,000. Now as Bynum is working towards a return that he predicts could come around the All-Star break (mid-February), the new machine is breaking down.

“It’s going pretty good. I shot around at shootaround (Monday morning) with the guys so I’m getting a bit better on the court. If the treadmill would stop breaking down I would be able to do a little bit more, but I’m going well. It’s like every 3 days or so it needs service, so I don’t know. I’ve been involved a little bit in practice just shooting around with the guys and stuff like that. My knees feel good and I’m not feeling any pain so this is all good and I just want to keep it going.” 

As great as an anti-gravity treadmill sounds, maybe the stress of carrying Bynum is a lot heavier than it looks. Andrew Bynum is listed at 285 pounds, but if you add the weight he has probably gained over the summer and another 20 pounds from his hair (which by the way is incredibly versatile), the machine might need some help. He needs to come back soon, because the 76ers are not doing too well. They are sitting a 9th spot in the East with a 17-24 record and is second last in the Atlantic Division.

Mike D'Anotni is pissed off, gets worked up over Lakers' defense.

UHHHHHH, the Lakers are screwed up - Mike D'Antoni.

I love how quick he realized 30 minutes was not the right answer and just explodes to get himself out of it. In all seriousness though, as explained previously, Mike D'Antoni has put himself into a situation where his system can't succeed, Nash is not the answer and things don't look good after this loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I mean, if CJ Miles scores 28 points on you after averaging 8 prior to this game and has not looked anything like himself, you have problems on defense. Just look the D'Antoni struggle faces.

David Richard - USA TODAY Sports

The only thing left for Pringles to do is to get the Phoenix medical staff over to LA to fix Dwight Howard's back and Nash's leg.

If not then,

Bernie Maybe?

Or Play Defense?

Source: SB Nation

Jason Kidd played with a helmet on in the second half.

Via: @porsche4door

After deciding the headband was not a good look to cover the stitches he received from Lance Stephenson on November 18th, he went with a band-aid instead. Unfortunately, Ty Lawson elbowed him in the head last night and forced the New York Knicks medical staff to take precautionary measures. Jason Kidd was advised to wear the NY Rangers helmet that are currently not of use during the NHL lockout that nobody cares about it, if he was to play in the game again.

Okay, I lied. But he did wear it during the entire half time warm ups and it was hilarious.

Via: @netw3rk and @BeyondtheBuzzer

Roy Hibbert pulled his shorts up to hide blood on his jersey to stay in the game.

Normally, when a player has blood on himself or jersey, the officials will stop the game to get you cleaned up. If you don't get done in the 30 seconds they issue, the coach can call a 20 second timeout, at worst, they will bring in a substitute.

It was a critical situation, the Pacers, who once led by 18 points were pushed back in the corner by the Blazer's 21-9 run. Roy Hibbert did not want sit because it would mean Ian Mahinmi coming back in and that is not happening. So when no one was watching, he pulled up his shorts to tug in the part of his jersey that was stained by Damian Lillard's blood. Everything worked out and the Pacers got the win.

He didn't go full Urkel, but it sure was weird look for a 7 footer. The plan didn't actually work, well it did in that sequence, but the refs caught him in the next possession and he had to get cleaned up anyways.

 Source: BDL

Kevin Love broke his hands doing push ups.

Marlin Levison, Minneapolis Star Tribune

It's been a rough preseason for Kevin Love this past week. First, he woke up to a elbow injury from sleeping with his arm hanging off the bed. And now, he is out for 6 to 8 weeks because he broke his right hand doing push ups. These freak injuries are hurting the Timberwolves, to Love's credit, he did break it doing KNUCKLE push ups with his trainer.

Perhaps he should learn how to do them properly from the other Kevin:

Sources: Orlando Sentinel (Picture), CBC Sports

Kobe is getting old, but never forgets.

Kobe have been contemplating to retire after his contract expires after the 2013 - 2014 season. He wasn't sure he would still have the drive to keep going for another year after the contract expires, taking him to the age of 36.

The Black Mamba have been preying on his opponents in the NBA for 17 years now, and it is finally showing. First, it is an universal fact that Kobe got his knees the first German platelet rich plasma therapy, which he made famous. It is unknown however, if there are actually volkswagen parts in him. This is highly doubted, because there have been no news of Kobe being held in the airport since the procedure, well, at least not yet.

And now, we have the 1997 Slam Dunk Champion straining his shoulder in practice, during a poster session with Antawn Jamison.

From ESPN:

Bryant said he thinks he hurt the shoulder Tuesday during practice when he dunked over teammate Antawn Jamison. He said he didn't feel pain at that point and continued to finish the practice. 

Here is the video of the dunks, not sure which one cost the injury:

Yes, we are now living in a world where Kobe gets hurt in a non-contested dunk. That is the circle of life, people get old and move on. But not the Mamba, coming back this summer with his own super team doesn't let him forget about his worst year in Los Angeles.

From Yahoo's BDL:

"I almost won an MVP with Smush Parker and Kwame Brown on my team," Bryant said before Wednesday's 93-75 exhibition loss to Portland. "I was shooting 45 times a game. What was I supposed to do? Pass it to Chris Mihm or Kwame Brown?"

 Bryant was referring to 2005-06 when the Lakers' roster included Brian Cook, Stanislav Medvedenko, Devean George and Parker, Mihm and Brown.

 Bryant continued, taking aim at his favorite whipping boy, Parker, calling him "the worst. He shouldn't have been in the NBA but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. So we let him walk on."

Those words are probably the most Kobe Bryant thing ever. Blaming his teammates for everything, and not so humble bragging about his success. Mario Chalmers should be glad he is on the Heat and getting occasionally yelled at by LeBron, can't imagine what Kobe would have done.


Sources: Listed above.