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In three of his last five showings, Laker’s superstar and newly-minted all-time NBA scoring leader has logged north of 39 minutes. That’s a lot for any player, but consider that LeBron is pushing forty and, as we in the media just have learned, has an injured foot.
What?
The decision to keep LeBron on the floor for so long despite knowledge that his foot was giving him issues has raised eyebrows of those around the team. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said the following on his recent podcast:
“Some of the people I speak to around the team, let’s put it that way, were like, ‘What are we doing here, playing him 40 minutes again?’” Dave McMenamin relayed. “‘We’re going to run him into the ground?’ And it’s not the minutes necessarily. It’s the minutes while a player is dealing with something that’s been pervasive.”
In any case, resting James now with just two games to go before the All-Star break makes a lot of sense. That would afford him a 16-day respite. That assumes, of course, that LeBron doesn’t suit up for the main event, in which he is the captain of one of the teams.
Despite the question marks about how much he has played recently, there is optimism that James will be fine in the long run. Also from Windhorst on that podcast:
“The things we see in the locker room are him getting it stretched out. It’s his left foot. The team’s terming it a left ankle injury but, for me, from what I’ve seen…it appears to be the foot more so than the ankle. Now, it was so serious that he went for an MRI this week which came back clean, which is good. Darvin Ham said there was one area of irritation, kind of vaguely. Don’t really know what that means.
I don’t think he’s going to miss the All-Star Game. I don’t think he’s going to miss these next two games prior to the All-Star break. He could miss the Portland game. Lisa Salters reported on the Saturday night broadcast that perhaps the Pelicans game at home is more likely. I reported that the Portland game was 50-50.”
Only time will tell for King James.
