INGLEWOOD, CA — The Los Angeles Clippers season became even more difficult before it had a chance to get easier. Last week, the team officially announced that Bradley Beal suffered a fractured hip, which will rule him out for the remainder of the year season.
“I feel horrible for Brad,” Clippers President of Basketball Operations told members of the media in a press conference. “Brad, since the time we've signed him, has been in the building, really since July rehabbing from his knee injury. Did everything we asked. He's such a high character guy and just feel horrible for him that he's dealing with this, you know, fractured hip. The great or the optimistic thing is talking to multiple surgeons. They're extremely optimistic that he'll make a full recovery. He'll be back for next year.”
Beal had been brought along slowly to start this season after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery back in May. He was expected to make a full recovery, but the Clippers training staff was careful in limiting how quickly he could return to his normal workload.
Unfortunately, Beal never got to see that full workload due to the hip fracture.
“I guess the silver lining is that, as we're trying to manage the inflammation of his knee, we'll get more time to deal with that. But I just feel horrible for Brad. Professional athletes, the toll that takes on their body and just to deal with these injuries and to deal with surgeries, your heart goes out to them. But also know for Brad that we're extremely encouraged about what the outcome will be and look forward to having him here next year healthy.”
Beal suffered the injury early in the second quarter of the Clippers' home game against the Phoenix Suns. Beal attempted to dive towards a loose ball, but before he could even make his move, appeared to injure his hip.
This is the moment Bradley Beal fractured hip, according to Lawrence Frank pic.twitter.com/FUgSsFagGF
— Law Murray ⛲️ (@LawMurrayTheNU) November 13, 2025
Beal had dealt with hip injuries in the past, but Frank says this injury was unrelated to any prior injuries.
“This is a complete separate type of injury,” Lawrence Frank added. “This is a very, very fluky injury. If you want to, it happened at 9:12 in the second quarter in the game against Phoenix, you can actually see it. The surgeons said it's almost like the equivalent of if you were in like a car accident. It's an atypical kind of basketball injury. It's more of an acute trauma type injury. So, you know, you do all the imaging on basically every parts of a player's body. But the two aren't related.”
Beal, who was bought out of his contract in July, signed a two-year deal with the Clippers that includes a player option for the 2026-27 season. As Frank mentioned, the six-to-nine month recovery timetable means Beal is expected to be ready to play at the start of next season.
“He'll have surgery early next week,” Frank said. “He'll stay in the hospital for a couple days, but then basically at the location of where the surgery will take place, he'll have to stay there for around five-to-seven days, kind of be immobilized. Then he'll be on crutches for basically four-to-six weeks. He'll be here, but a large part of this is, probably anywhere from six-to-eight weeks, basically just letting everything heal. And you know, they'll do some light work with him, and then once you get past that benchmark, then you'll start the rehab.”
When brought on in the offseason, Bradley Beal was expected to fill in the role of the recently-traded Norman Powell. Powell, who had a near-All-Star season for the Clippers last year, was traded to the Miami Heat as a part of the trade that brought John Collins to the Clippers.
But Beal's injury leaves a gaping hole at the shooting guard position, with the Clippers desperately needing a guard not named James Harden to create offense for themselves and others.
“I've stayed in touch with him throughout the whole process,” said Frank. “I think there's a wide range of emotions from him. One, in his way, he feels like he's let us down by being hurt which is the complete opposite, but that's kind of his loyalty and kind of gratitude for being in this situation. He feels horrible that he's not there for his teammates, and that he was really hoping to have a really, really good year.
“People forget that last year, Brad was basically a 50-40-80 guy averaging 17 points a game, so he was looking to do better than that and he's disappointed that he won't be there for his teammates and coaches.”
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue and Bradley Beal have Missouri ties and were hopeful to build on their relationship both on and off the basketball court this season.
“I just told him prayers to him,” Lue said of his messaging to Beal. “He put in the work all preseason trying to get back and trying to get right and then this happens. You feel bad when these types of things happen to any player, whether it's to your team or any player across the league. Just feel bad for him. Just praying for him that the recovery is speedy and he gets back to being himself.”
Beal finished this season having played in only six games, averaging 8.2 points and 1.7 assists while shooting 37.5 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from three.
