Kobe Bryant shares real, raw recovery advice for Gordon Hayward after injury

Since his retirement, Kobe Bryant has been more than willing to give players advice, reach out to them, and challenge them to be better.

On Tuesday afternoon, he added Gordon Hayward to that list when he sent him well-wishes and motivation via Instagram following Hayward’s fractured ankle in the season opener against Cleveland.

“It’s a long journey but if you focus on the mini milestones along the way you will find beauty in the struggle of doing simple things that prior to this injury were taken for granted,” Bryant said in the post. “You see the belief within you grow with each mini milestone and you will come back a better player for it.”

Bryant isn’t the first athlete to reach out to send his thoughts to Hayward, but he is one of the few who has experienced a similar pain of having his season ended prematurely.

Bryant battled a torn achilles for an entire season after he initially ruptured it at the end of the 2012-13 season, and was never the same player again. But along the way, he learned many of the things he imparted on Hayward in his Instagram post.

“The moment that you’re in feels like the darkest moment to you,” Bryant said in an interview with Rachel Nichols. “You have to issue that challenge to yourself and try to respond to it.”

Retirement has allowed Bryant to open up about himself more than he ever did on the basketball court and has allowed us to see a side of him that we haven’t before.

He’s reached out to multiple players still in the league and has had lines of communication open with different players to continue to motivate and inspire them.

Earlier this summer, when Nike released the newest version of his Kobe A.D. sneakers, Bryant issued challenges to his peers and other famous people via Instagram. He reached out to Isaiah Thomas after he lost his sister in a car accident. Bryant has been more human than ever, and it’s refreshing.

Bryant’s concern and advice here is genuine — the two have worked out together in the past and forged a friendship during that time. He’s wishing for the best with Hayward. Hopefully, like Bryant said, Hayward will emerge 10 times better from this.