Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul was non-committal on when his top client, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, can return from his groin injury.
“He knows his body better than anybody, so we kind of have to follow him there,” Paul said on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, March 11. “So I won’t put a timetable on it. I’ll let LeBron decide what was to be done there. He has a great trainer and medical staff with the Lakers, and Mike Nancias (Lakers athletic trainer) leads that for him and so, I’ll just be in a lockstep with those guys.”
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Sunday, March 9, that James is expected to miss at least one to two weeks with a groin strain.
“James will wait for the groin injury to calm down over the next 24 hours and receive another evaluation,” Charania wrote on X.
James suffered the injury in the final 6:44 of their 111-101 loss to their arch-rivals Boston Celtics on Saturday, March 8. It was a crushing blow for the Lakers, who were the best defensive team since Jan. 15 with James engaged defensively. He is also the Lakers’ leading scorer (25.0 points), rebounder (8.2 rebounds) and playmaker (8.5 assists).
The Lakers lost their first game without him, 108-111 on Monday, March 10, against the lottery-bound Brooklyn Nets.
LeBron’s Wear and Tear
The 40-year-old James came into his 22nd season with the most miles among all NBA players. And he might have extended himself by playing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he was named the MVP of the tournament for Team USA’s gold medal run.
James already took two week-long rests this season to manage his ankle issues.
“So, there’s been a lot of basketball playing for the older guys,” Paul continued. “When you have this type of injury, you have to manage it properly.”
Paul referenced James’ postgame interview in which he said two things popped into his mind and one of them was his former Lakers teammate Anthony Davis, another Klutch Sports client, who was traded for Luka Dončić.
“Unfortunately, AD had the same thing, a little bit different, but, and he even mentioned that. The second thing he thought about was that. So you have to manage it with grace.”
Davis has been out since his Dallas Mavericks debut on Feb. 8 after suffering an adductor strain.
Rich Paul Believes JJ Redick Will Keep Lakers Afloat
The Lakers, currently third in the West, have the fourth-toughest remaining schedule left, per Tankathon.
Their 19-game schedule includes two games each against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks and the Houston Rockets and one game each against the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies.
It’s already certain that James would miss the back-to-back games against the Bucks (March 13) and the Nuggets (March 14) this week. If he misses two weeks, he would also miss the rematch against those teams next week — Nuggets on March 19 and Bucks on March 20.
“Obviously, the Lakers had a tough schedule coming up,” Paul said. “I think they got six games in eight nights, or something like that, and then play some pretty top heavy teams. It’s tough. Look, they have a lot of work to do, regardless whether he was there or not, in terms of just with the roster, but those guys have been playing an unbelievable game of basketball. And JJ has those guys prepared.”
