LeBron James has been carrying a recurrent injury in his left foot throughout the whole 2022/23 season. Although it hasn’t kept him from beating every record in his way at 38 years of age, he has missed his fair share of games for the Lakers. The latest scan indicates his sore ankle shouldn’t have any serious consequences and the athlete should be able to overcome it.
Ever since the King became the newly crowned NBA career scoring leader, he’s had to sit two straight games, including this past Saturday night against the Warriors.
Even so, Los Angeles coach Darvin Ham expects to see James back on the floor before the All-Star break. “No, I don’t think he’ll allow us to do that,” the LA trainer responded when asked whether James might need to be sidelined all next week. Ham’s trust in his star goes all the way, as last week he admitted to the press that he believes LeBron’s career is the best any player has ever had in NBA history.
“I was told LeBron was severely struggling with that foot injury he has. It gets to points where it just gets unbearable and he plays through it. The way it’s explained to me is that might be something that lingers all season long, but it reached the dire point.”
– Chris Haynes pic.twitter.com/qJXTqPUuke
— Lakers All Day Everyday (@LADEig) February 12, 2023
General manager Rob Pelinka concurs, as he said earlier this Saturday that nothing was significantly wrong for James’, who’s jersey is auctioned to be sold for $3 million after he overcame Abdul-Jabbar’s record during last week’s 133-130 home loss to Oklahoma City.
“LeBron did have some imaging on his foot injury,” Pelinka assured. “And we’re grateful that things came back clean and good.”
Let’s have a recap of the games the star has missed recently. This past match against Golden State, who also missed rival Stephen Curry because of a leg injury, was the foward’s seventh contest out of action due to the soreness in his left ankle.
After that, James was out one more time for another specific issue on his foot, another match he missed at the beginning of 2023 due to a non-COVID illness, and finally he was in the injury list for five games with a strained left inner thigh muscle.
“Obviously we made moves and one of the biggest moves is making sure we’re not putting him in a position where we’re putting him at risk of a bigger issue,” coach Ham stated his recovery plans for LeBron. “Just for him to continue to get treatment, stay off of it.”
The six-foot-nine veteran is about to participate in his 19th straight All-Star game, as he is the leader of the Western Conference stars this next February 19th in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“We’re just taking this time that we have to get him treated and hopefully get him back so we can make a good run and he can be in the midst of it down the stretch,” Ham said yesterday in press conference.
Even though the Lakers are still ranking 13th in the West standings, most of our recommended sport betting sites still consider the Los Angeles team to have the tenth best odds (+2500) to conquer the NBA title this year. Will LeBron and the latest trades be able to take their team to the playoffs and beyond?
