I always thought the Walt Whitman poem eulogizing Abraham Lincoln was over the top. “Fallen cold and dead …”

But my reaction to what appears to be Kobe Bryant’s torn Achilles tendon led me to think of the Whitman poem: O Captain! My Captain! (The one that, of a time, was required reading in American schools.)

Just yesterday, I nearly wrote about Kobe’s ridiculous run of performances, these past few weeks, when he not only led the Lakers towards the playoffs but seemed to be carrying/pushing them there, as well.

Playing all but a few seconds of game after game, putting up huge numbers … at age 34. “Heroball” some called it … but it was, in fact, productively heroic because the Lakers began winning again.

Additional observations:

–I do not hold Mike D’Antoni personally responsible for this. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but a ruptured Achilles seems far more the result of years and years of pounding on it, rather than one two-week period of additional exertion. It’s not like by sitting eight minutes a game the past few weeks his Achilles was going to heal itself from the insults of a lifetime playing basketball.

–At 34, Kobe falls right in the middle of the age group that seems most susceptible to ruptured Achilles. Not young, but not particularly old. David Beckham also was 34 when his Achilles blew. Dan Marino, the quarterback, was 32. Ryan Howard, the Phillies slugger, was just short of 32. Elton Brand was 25, but Al Gore (former vice president) did his when he was 46 — while playing basketball. (Two sports writers I know each suffered a ruptured Achilles while in their 30s; one while playing basketball; one while playing tennis.)

–Men apparently are four to seven times as likely to blow an Achilles as women.

–A ruptured Achilles no longer is the career-ender it often was a generation or two ago. Terrell Suggs of the Baltimore Ravens played in an NFL game five months after he suffered the injury, last year, at the age of 29.

–Kobe has a history of remarkable recoveries from injury. Both to his knee and to his ankles; how many times has he played right through what was diagnosed a sprained ankle? On several other occasions, he came back after a handful of missed games.

–I expect Kobe will play — for the Lakers — in a game during the 2013-14 season. If Terrell Suggs could come back in five months at 29 … well, let’s give Kobe another couple of months because he was five years older when his Achilles snapped, but he also will get the best care and has a reputation for healing quickly. So … I make it 50-50 he plays in the opener, early in November, seven-plus months hence.

Will he be the same player? It would seem likely he would lose some of his leaping ability, but for several years he has not been the skywalker he was as a young man.

He will return to scoring in the clever ways he has since he turned 30 … double-clutch shots, fall-aways, spotting up. And he will drive and go to the line.

I am confident this will not end his career. I also believe the Lakers will not “amnesty him” and that he will finish his career with the team. Jim Buss is getting lots of things wrong, but I believe he will get that one right.

The Lakers are dead-dead-dead, now, when it comes to the playoffs. But it was unlikely they were going to survive the first round, even with Kobe. Perhaps, the complete lack of expectations now, if they reach the playoffs (and get Oklahoma City or San Antonio) will be liberating for the survivors, and perhaps they will win a game or two.

The Lakers without Kobe? Unthinkable, almost, at this point. But if they go out of the playoffs quickly, and he is back for opening night … he will miss fewer than 10 games, and I believe that is how this will work out.

If you want to read up on returns from Achilles tendon surgery, here is a website dedicated to linking to stories. Lots of stuff there.