The Lakers may be without star forward LeBron James for their first game after the All-Star break, as he’ll be undergoing left ankle treatment this week, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. L.A. faces Golden State on Thursday.
An All-Star starter, James played 14 minutes in Sunday’s exhibition game but sat out the second half to manage the ankle injury. He missed his seventh game of the season last Wednesday, the final contest before the break.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- James set a record by being named to his 20th All-Star game in 2023/24. Several young players at All-Star weekend said they were amazed by his remarkable longevity, according to Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times, who notes that seven Rising Stars participants were born after James made his NBA debut, including Jazz rookie Keyonte George. “It’s crazy. There’s a stat when we played him the first time that he was older than our coach (Will Hardy),” George said Friday morning with a laugh. “… All the young guys coming into the league know who Bron is. To me, he’s the best that ever touched the basketball. … The main goal coming into the league is, ‘How can I stay in it for as long as possible?’ Being a good teammate, with your play. The name of the game is longevity. … I think the shot-making ability, not going to the rim all the time, get to their spots, pick them, play with a good pace. I think that helps with longevity and your body. And then it comes down to skill.“
- Appearing on TNT’s Inside the NBA before the All-Star game, James said his son, Bronny James, has yet to decide whether he’ll declare for the 2024 draft, as McMenamin of ESPN relays. Bronny is a freshman guard at USC. “It’s up to him, it’s up to the kid,” LeBron said. “We’re going to go through the whole process. He’s still in season now. He has the Pac-12 tournament coming up. … We’re going to weigh all options and we’re going to let the kid make the decision.”
- Jovan Buha of The Athletic lists five reasons to be optimistic about the Lakers down the stretch, including the new starting lineup of D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, James and Anthony Davis. L.A. is 8-2 when those five players have shared the court together, Buha notes, including 5-0 with them starting.
Wild that it only took Darvin Ham 2/3rds of the season to realize it’s best to start your best players.
Amen
Played half of a joke ASG and can’t play against the Warriors on national TV. Nice work NBA, you did this to yourself.
14min isn’t half…
He always shows up on injury report but plays. More like a 90% chance he plays on Thursday.
All this talk about LeBron son, u would think he was good or something. He has been a big time flop at usc.
He’s been big time recovering from a major medical incident, kinda hard to judge how good he is or isn’t at this point.
He is literally undraftable right now. If he isn’t healthy he shouldn’t be playing.
It’s not that hard to judge, he’s getting 20+ minutes some games and is fairly forgettable on the court, its not his health or conditioning that is keeping him back, its that he’s not in high school anymore.
It’s easier to understand if you accept it has nothing to do with Bronny. Everyone could know he will have the same career as Brian Scalabrine and he would have this hype. It’s more about the last thing of note in Lebron’s career and the first father son pair. The moment Lebron retired the media will turn on Bronny.
Who wants to watch Layawn anyway.
Jesus, he’s building a special court right now in the sky for when Lbj passes
At this rate, Bronny is heading towards a 4 year college career followed by some G-league action.
Maybe Bronny should try division 2
If he’s injured why did he play at all in a meaningless game??? Stay home and receive treatment instead. That’s the actions of a person serious about the rest of the season.
Because he is a showboat and only cares about stats. He’s as selfish as they come. If he really cared about winning, he would take a smaller salary so they could sign quality players. MJ did that most of his career. The last year the Spurs won a title, the salaries of Manu, Timmy and Tony Parker totaled about the same as Kobe’s salary. Manu took a 50 percent cut in pay to make it work.
Jordan never took less money by choice. He signed an 8 year $25 million dollar contract in ’89. At the time that made him one of the highest paid players in the league. Around year six of that deal there was a new CBA and salaries exploded, as soon as he was able he signed a 1 year $30.1 million dollar deal in ’96 which was worth more than the next highest paid players Horace Grant’s and Reggie Miller’s salaries combined. The following year he resigned for $33.1MM which was almost as much as Ewing and Grant’s salaries combined. At the end of his career in Washington he signed for $1MM a season but that’s only because he worked for the team.
When LeBron left Cleveland both times and Miami he signed contracts with new teams that didn’t have his Bird rights therefore leaving 10’s of millions on the table. In fact in Miami he, Wade and Bosh all took less than the max because Miami didn’t have quit enough cap space to sign all three to max deals.
Can’t wait for Lebron to retire. Thank God his son is awful.
Yeah I’m with you. Be a sad day for teenagers world wide who believe everything they hear. I put the longevity down to not playing D, unless you include flopping. Others can hustle. The vitamins LBJ is on and a soft as hell league. This dude been on the protected species list since he took his talents to south beach. His son isn’t G league level.
Brony plays just like his dad (unselfish) on the court, and was a McDonald’s all American because he was good, he still is good for a freshman. He’s one of the best of a great young group in the PAC-12. He will make the NBA on his strengths alone, like court vision and defensive ability. He’s also a better shooter than his dad at the same age. His only weakness is he’s smaller than dad, but still a great young player. NBA? He’s a can’t miss.
He wasn’t first-team all league in High School. You’ll be shocked to learn his Dad has an endorsement deal with McDonald’s. That’s it period.
Being small is a weakness? Heard of Ja Morant, Jamaal Murry, Dwayne Wade, Anthony Edwards, Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, etc. They are all Bronny’s height or shorter. Being tall doesn’t make you elite. Bol Bol is 7′ 3″ tall and sucks.
Father Time is chasing LeBron. He’s getting slower so FT is gaining on him.
You rarely see an NBA superstar player’s son be a star. MJ’s son was not even average. Just because Bronny has his dad’s name, doesn’t mean he’ll be a great player. He’ll be lucky to get drafted. The only reason a team might draft him is with the hope that his dad joins the team on a team friendly contract.