Kobe Bryant posts inspirational message for Gordon Hayward

As someone who dealt with numerous severe injuries toward the end of his Hall of Fame career, Kobe Bryant has an idea of what it feels like to be Gordon Hayward. And the former Los Angeles Lakers star is trying to pass on some of his wisdom.

Bryant created an Instagram post on Wednesday dedicated to Hayward, who suffered a gruesome ankle injury in the Boston Celtics’ first game of the season Tuesday night. In the lengthy post, Bryant encouraged Hayward to embrace the range of emotions he will experience and use them to gain a “new perspective.”

Be sad. Be mad. Be frustrated. Scream. Cry. Sulk. When you wake up you will think it was just a nightmare only to realize it’s all too real. You will be angry and wish for the day back, the game back THAT play back. But reality gives nothing back and nor should you. Time to move on and focus on doing everything in your power to prepare for surgery, ask all the questions to be sure you understand fully the procedure so that you may visualize it in your subconscious while being operated on and better the chance of it’s success. Then focus on the recovery process day by day by day. 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. This will also mean that when you return you will have a new perspective. You will be so appreciative of being able to stand, walk, run that you will train harder than you ever have. You see the belief within you grow with each mini milestone and you will come back a better player for it. Best of luck to you on this journey my brother #mambamentality always.

A post shared by Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) on Oct 18, 2017 at 8:38am PDT

Here’s the full text:

Be sad. Be mad. Be frustrated. Scream. Cry. Sulk. When you wake up you will think it was just a nightmare only to realize it’s all too real. You will be angry and wish for the day back, the game back THAT play back. But reality gives nothing back and nor should you. Time to move on and focus on doing everything in your power to prepare for surgery, ask all the questions to be sure you understand fully the procedure so that you may visualize it in your subconscious while being operated on and better the chance of it’s success. Then focus on the recovery process day by day by day. 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. This will also mean that when you return you will have a new perspective. You will be so appreciative of being able to stand, walk, run that you will train harder than you ever have. You see the belief within you grow with each mini milestone and you will come back a better player for it. Best of luck to you on this journey my brother #mambamentality always.

Hayward is set to undergo surgery after he suffered a dislocated ankle and fractured tibia, and it is not yet clear how much time he will miss. You won’t need a doctor to tell you he’ll miss at least several months if you dare to watch the video of the injury.

Since he went down early in Tuesday’s game, Hayward has received an outpouring of support from the NBA community.