Los Angeles Lakers superstar and MVP candidate LeBron James suffered a high ankle sprain on Saturday against the Atlanta Hawks.
James, whose X-ray results came out negative, is officially ruled out indefinitely. Despite suffering an injury though, James still traveled with the Lakers to Phoenix, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
LeBron James accompanied the Lakers on their flight to Phoenix, according to a team spokesperson.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 21, 2021
The Lakers are set to play the Phoenix Suns on Sunday in the second night of a back-to-back.
There’s no question that the Lakers will severely miss James. After all, the team’s roster is built around The King. LeBron traveling with the Purple and Gold hours after hurting his ankle could be a good sign given that the team would have requested him to stay in LA if the injury was worse—similar to what he experienced when he had the adductor injury.
While there’s no clear indication about the severity of his injury yet, at least for now James will be cheering and guiding his teammates versus the Suns, who overtook the Lakers for second place in the Western Conference standings.
LeBron James has always been a team-first type of player. It’s one of the reasons why his teammates (maybe except Kyrie Irving) admire him so much. The defending champions are expected to drop in the Western Conference standings, but the team’s mantra has always been “next man up”—which they need to do now more than ever with both James and superstar Anthony Davis out.
Players like Dennis Schroder (who will handle a ton of ball handling now with James out), Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harell, Talen Horton-Tucker and Alex Caruso are expected to carry the offensive load for the Lakers moving forward. It’s potentially going to be a rough road for the champs, but if there’s one thing people should know it’s that “you never underestimate the heart of a champion” or in this case, champions.
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