LeBron James has been blessed with good health and durability for most of his NBA career. But, as with all things, time has a way of changing the status quo.
For LeBron, at 36-years-old, he is finding himself dealing with some serious injury troubles, mostly involving his ankle, which he sprained earlier in the season.
Despite apparently feeling good enough to return, LeBron said himself he may never be the same again, and many fans are wondering whether or not we’ve seen the end of LeBron’s reign over the NBA.
To make matters worse, he seemed to re-injure his ankle during Sunday night’s game against the Raptors. This latest incident could set back LeBron’s recovery for weeks, and may even inhibit his strength in the playoffs.
“One thing we know from reporting last week was, when LeBron came back, no one expected him to come back,” said ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “The King’s game wasn’t, like circled on the calendar. In fact, a source had told me he was looking at Monday’s game against Denver or the game against Clippers. So LeBron felt good, he sped up the timeline.
Frank Vogel said that it’s not a setback, I don’t know how you couldn’t call it a setback coz LeBron said that he had sharp pain for the first time, that he hadn’t experienced it any time during his ramp up. But, right now, whatever happens in these next two weeks mean nothing compared to what could happen in the playoffs. So he is clearly prioritizing using every bit of time he can, to get even better.”
The Lakers are probably the NBA’s biggest story right now. Les than a year after winning the Championship, here they are struggling to stay together amid a series of injuries that have handicapped the roster.
Both LeBron James and Anthony Davis have missed huge chunks of time already, and while A.D. is finally back on the court, it seems LeBron could be compromised for quite some time.
What doe this mean for the Lakers’ repeat hopes? What does it mean for the future of LeBron himself?
At this point, there’s nothing we can really do but wait, and hope that we get to see Bron at the top of his game.
