LeBron James won’t travel with the Lakers on the team’s upcoming two-game road trip to Oklahoma City and Houston, the club announced today in a press release. However, James – who continues to recover from a groin injury – has been cleared to practice once the Lakers return next week.
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin first reported that James would miss at least two more games, noting that the four-time MVP hasn’t officially been ruled out for Monday’s showdown vs. the Warriors. LeBron won’t have much practice time under his belt at that point though, so returning for that game would be a best-case scenario.
In a conversation with Sam Amick of The Athletic, agent Rich Paul said that James hasn’t targeted any specific return dates and won’t get back on the court until he’s fully healthy. Stressing that “we’re not on nobody else’s timeline,” Paul noted that he and his client don’t want to risk re-injury by coming back too soon.
According to Paul, doctors initially estimated that James would miss between three and six weeks. The injury occurred just over three weeks ago, so LeBron remains right on track, and won’t let the Lakers’ recent slump accelerate his timeline.
“Obviously he cares (about the team’s struggles),” Paul said. “The man wants to play. He’s f—ing itching to play, but he can’t put himself in that situation. It’s just, you’ve really got to do the right thing and it has zero to do with his age, or the fact that he’s played 16 seasons – nothing to do with that. This is a tendon. It’s not a shoulder, or an ankle, or an elbow. The smart thing to do is to do the smart thing. You can’t allow media, or the fact that the team might be losing, to dictate what’s best for you, and we won’t. He’s progressing. He’s not ready yet.”
Here’s more on LeBron and the Lakers:
- James’ groin issue is already the worst injury of his 16-year career. He’s also on track to set a new career-high in games missed — he has never sat out more than 13 in a single season, and if he misses Monday’s game against Golden State, it would be 14 in 2018/19. Joe Vardon of The Athletic takes a closer look at how LeBron is coping with a rare health problem.
- The Lakers’ struggles without James have – perhaps unfairly – increased the pressure on head coach Luke Walton, whose seat appears hotter than ever before. Multiple sources tell ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, however, that Lakers management “continues to project support” for Walton, both publicly and privately.
- Walton shouldn’t be blamed for the Lakers’ recent slide, according to Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times, who suggests that president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka should take responsibility for assembling a mismatched roster.
Be sad to see a coach fired bc “king lebron” is hurt only a matter of time till he fell from his previous standards. Good job lakers!
The roster was designed to be transitional, not perfect. Patience. The integration was not going to be as ready-made as it was for Cleveland. The other star is probably not aboard yet. The Cavs traded youth for veteran talent (Wiggins/Love) right away; The Lakers were under fan pressure not to.
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Is this the first we have heard about what the original prognosis was for James?– at least according to agent Rich Paul. But if James was going to be out 3 to 6 weeks, why is he always “day to day” or “next evaluation”? Maybe James though he would get over this as quickly as he usually does, nevermind the doctors.
It’s not age though, as much as just his particular achilles-heel.
Firing Walton because of a bad stretch of losses would be dumb in any context, but particularly dumb when your best player is out (and when your best player is LeBron).
Jeanie Buss is smart. I can’t imagine she’ll be driving the bus over Walton.
Magic? I’m not so sure. He’s an unproven GM. Unless he’s got a great coach waiting in the wings, Walton seems like he’s part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
Not to mention the other injuries, particularly to Rondo, which hurts
Walton’s a scrub! He puts the blame on his players but not himself! Byron Scott 2.0 .
Walton should get a whole season with LeBron regardless of what happens. It can only get better from here.
I don’t think Magic wants to fire Walton now, even if he could unilaterally (which, I think he probably can in effect). I think he just wanted to deliver a message that he’s not happy with certain things, and nobody should feel above being evaluated (other than LBJ of course), even a HC with a personal relationship with the owner.
this what happens when you ingest a sht ton of steroids and hgh, your body can only handle so much
Who?
Still waiting on someone to tell me what Walton did to deserve the job in the first place? Half a season with a absolute loaded Warriors team?
I don’t see the heat they keep talking about. The only ones saying is the press. And it’s ridiculous. They were doing great before LBJ got hurt. After their first 3 losses and before he was hurt, they were playing around .666 or close to it. All it does is point out LBJs importance. I am surprised he makes that much difference, but it sure looks that way.
Walton is a chucklehead. He should never have been given the job in the first place.