The Lakers provided some injury news on two of their key players on Monday, issuing updates on Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzma.
As we noted on Monday afternoon, an ESPN report indicated that an MRI on Davis’ sprained right thumb came back clean, which the Lakers essentially confirmed late last night. According to the team (via Twitter), AD is being listed as day-to-day after undergoing tests on his thumb, which suggests he still has a decent chance of playing in the team’s regular-season opener a week from tonight.
Meanwhile, Kuzma, who was diagnosed last month with a stress reaction in his left foot, has been cleared for non-contact activity, per head coach Frank Vogel (Twitter links via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN). Asked about Kuzma’s status for next Tuesday’s opener, Vogel responded, “We’ll see,” adding that the forward will also be considered day-to-day.
As we wait to find out whether Davis and Kuzma are ready to go for opening night, here’s more on the Lakers:
- In his first public comments on the NBA/China controversy on Monday night, LeBron James was critical of Rockets GM Daryl Morey, as Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN details. James speculated that Morey was “misinformed” and “wasn’t educated” about the situation in China when he sent his now-infamous tweet supporting Hong Kong protestors.
- James later sought to clarify his comments in a pair of tweets, suggesting that he meant Morey didn’t understand the ramifications his message would have. James also said the tweet was poorly timed, since the Lakers and Nets showed up in China just a few days later and had a “difficult week.” However, LeBron was still widely criticized for his stance, with Dan Wolken of USA Today calling it “the most disgraceful moment” of the superstar’s career.
- Mark Medina of USA Today takes a look back at the Lakers’ “difficult” week in China, exploring how they coped with being placed in the middle of an international incident. As Medina writes, Vogel referred to the team’s time in China as a “really productive trip” despite the unexpected drama.
- Dwight Howard‘s presence on the Lakers’ roster this season is a reminder of what’s at stake for the franchise with Anthony Davis this season, according to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. Howard’s previous one-and-done stint with the Lakers in 2012/13 is, of course, exactly what the team wants to avoid with Davis.
I’ve loved watching LBJ for 15 years, but man.. siding with the authoritarian government over money is not what role models do.
Agreed
There’s some egg roll on that man’s face.
Or maybe it’s Winnie the Pooh on his face.
LeBron trying to protect his Chinese income. Maybe he’s the one who needs to be educated on what Hong Kong protesters are actually protesting about. Or maybe he might chance his mind if he spent some time in a Chinese concentration camp.
Didn’t you hear Uyghur Muslims don’t matter – only the Muslims on the West Banc matter.
As many have suspected all along, some only have moral outrage when it suits them. Siding with the Chinese reveals previous moral outrage as fake.
Lebron James is now the spokesperson for Communist China. So much for “more than an athlete”
Lebron is a tired act
Lebron is nothing more than an uneducated mouth piece. He doesn’t care that his shoes are made in a communist government by people with little to no rights as long as he gets paid. He acts all high and mighty about black minorities rights and being paid as a collegian athlete but when it comes to china its irrelevant.
This same people who support lebron also think he paid for the “ipromise” school when in fact he merely endorsed it, it was funded by Cleveland’s tax payers.
Sadly look at the whole landscape and how much money players make yearly and how little they share with their very own communities, not everyone is like nipsey hussle, kendrick lamar, j cole etc. Yet athletes are the most vocal about tax payers doing more yet don’t lead by example. Gross.
You are 100% correct. Incredible basketball talent, absolute joke of a person that wants everyone to believe he has a conscience in regards to social issues. So happy he chose LA and not Philly, I couldn’t have stomached the bull he’s spewing now.
Morey is misinformed? When pressed about the actual topic – human rights violations, you have no opinion or substance because he himself is not informed and speaking solely from a financial and economic perspective. Sad. Really Sad.
LeBron acting like the Corporate Chump and not the People’s Champ he likes everyone to believe. I was fully expecting Vince McMahon and the Big Bossman to come out and pack LBJ on the bum for towing the corporate line – if yaaaaaa smeellllllaaaaa what the NBA is cookin. Hypocrisy.
Thankfully, for LeBron, his statement (as usual for him) was incoherent enough that he can later have someone explain what he actually said.
The larger issue is that the NBA, as a league, has to respond better to China’s public bullying of them. Silver’s initial attempt was so feeble, and off point, it might as well have come from LeBron. His next one should reflect a consensus of the owners, and (because Silver has made it near mandatory for players to address political and social issues) the players association. I wish him luck.
Wait, Joe Biden described LeBron as articulate. At least I think it was LeBron.
Before reaching a conclusion, let Biden have his wife clarify just who he was describing as articulate.
I don’t usually agree with LeBron, but you don’t take to Twitter to “solve” a problem like the Hong Kong issue. When you’re dealing with an oppressive authoritarian regime, backlash like this is inevitable. Let’s hope that the US doesn’t try to “free” another country again, mess up and the. WWIII begins…
Agree dude! LBJ just voiced his opinion just like Morey, this is the NBA, that is entertainment, if you guys want politics, just pleas ask Trump to stop China or the US government to cut off ties with China, that is the solution… meanwhile LBJ did just right with his comments.
While I agree (as does Morey) that his tweet was a mistake, LeBron went a bit further than that in analyzing the situation. Although, in fairness, I have no idea what LeBron said. But, he could have said: “I understand Morey’s sentiment, but its really not right for one of our league’s executives to independently confront any league sponsor, without first consulting the rest of us, nor was it a good forum to do it in.”
You know what you also don’t do? You don’t side with said authoritarian government. LeBron acted really high and mighty after he stayed in a suite after a chartered flight. LeBron cared about his money here and nothing else. Let’s not pretend he said what he did to be insightful. He didn’t want to talk about the subject because he is uneducated about it but had the gall to say Morey was uneducated about it. LeBron and the NBA players weren’t in danger because of the tweet. His money is. And I don’t feel bad when a man worth hundreds of millions of dollars loses a few because of a relationship with an authoritarian government he’s counting on suddenly isn’t great.
I was quite amused watching the LBJ jerseys burn in HK today. I guess the tremendous amount of James jerseys one sees in HK (I’m here one week a month) don’t matter to the Communist King.
What a dumb blunder by James. He lost some Chinese endorsement money boo hoo. Now he probably loses more.
This is the kind of thing that happens when the NBA can’t even require even one year of college. Professions routinely require qualifications for admittance.
Morey at least was positive towards civil rights. James threw some words out he was fed by people who knew a stooge when they see one.
Just. Shut. Up.
James wants to sell Space Jam 2 overseas, and there’s a lot more money in China than in Hong Kong. He said he’s been there 15 or 20 times, presumably laying business foundations– That’s too many to be just touring. This is probably the education James spoke of.
There was always going to be a conflict on the horizon between China’s ways, or at least their government’s, and the sport of basketball especially the version being exported by America, being typically America’s most ‘liberal’ sport.
It’s disappointing that people care so much about an NBA player tweeting about an NBA owner who commented about a foreign country. Priorities, people.
It was a GM, not an owner.
Minor detail, obviously.
Dan Wolken of USA Today isn’t a viewer of the NBA and his comments about James are complete trash. Seems like him & Ben Golliver of the Washington Post are into talking trash about Coach Vogel and the Lakers. If they aren’t writing anything for fans then its rubbish, and they weren’t