Kobe Bryant’s NBA career will come to an end Wednesday night in Los Angeles, after 20 years. And Fusionetics, a sports technology company, has played a significant role to the end to help Bryant extend his illustrious career. His final year has been the worst statistically of his entire career, but the five-time NBA Champion, as the Los Angeles Daily News reported recently, has been working extensively with Fusionetics, and it has helped him stay on the court as much as possible during his farewell tour.
Get The Latest NBA Tech News In Your Inbox!
Fusionetics combines sports science, clinical application and cutting edge technology, to help athletes at every level. They began to work with Bryant after he suffered a season ending Achilles tear. Lakers’ head athletic Trainer Gary Vitti, who is also retiring this year, played a large role in bringing Fusionetics and Bryant together.
Over the past decade the company has worked with 14 different NBA teams. They specialize in setting up goal-oriented programs for individual athletes. Fusionetics, as they do with all their athletes, has tried to help Bryant prevent injuries, optimize performance and recover.
The founder of Fusionetics, Dr. Micheal Clark’s focus is on preventable injuries, and that has been one of the major focuses of Bryant’s treatment, since they began their partnership. “The main thing for him is to keep the risk of injury to a minimum,” Oviedo told the L.A. Daily News, when refereeing to Bryant’s work with Fusionetics.
Fusionetics focuses on how the body works together as a whole, and as their website states, one of their missions is to maximize human movement. One of Bryant’s therapists, Michael Oviedo has played a major role in helping get Kobe ready for games this season. The pair focus on looking for weak areas in Bryant’s body and correcting them, and with the help of Fusionetics’ technology they are able to hone in on very precise areas.
If joints and muscles are not balanced properly, over compensation injuries occur and that is why Bryant has focused so much on maintaining his entire body.“They’ve done a great job for the last four or five years making sure the body is in complete alignment,” Bryant told the LA Daily News. “They’ve removed the guess work from the procedure. Things are very measured.”
Bryant is a big proponent of using sports science to help athletes remain healthy, “Think progressively and continuing to look for new things…With the technology the players have available to themselves, you can really prolong a career if a player really focuses on it.”
Kobe Bryant’s illustrious NBA career is coming to an end, but the tireless maintenance on his body, with the help of Fusionetics has helped him play in more games this season, 65, than he did over the previous two combined. As fans at the Staples Center get to watch Bryant one more time, they might take a moment to appreciate and be grateful for the advancements in sports technology that have helped give them the chance to watch this NBA great, for this long.