So, it’s been a month since LeBron left with a groin injury during the Christmas Day game and was pronounced “day to day,” and the day after, it was reported that his MRI was clean and he wasn’t supposed to miss much time. Only later did Rich Paul come out and say it wasn’t just a sprain but a minor tear. The Ringer has a rundown of the timeline and some fun conspiracy theories on the (deliberately?) slow/misleading information flow. Here’s there timeline:
Windhorst on ESPN has a piece up this week as well, focusing on the gambling implications of injury information protocols in the NBA. Overall, it seems like the kind of gamesmanship that NFL teams deal in regarding injuries, but that’s one instance where the NFL may be ahead of the NBA in terms of the exact and regimented flow of information and player availability classification.
- Immediately after the play, James told Lakers staff “I felt a pop.” Thanks to the nature of the word “pop,” this was easy to lip-read from the broadcast.
- Shortly after, Mike Trudell reported he was “questionable to return,” later announcing he would not.
- Still on December 25, Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes tweetedthat an initial exam showed it was a “slight” groin strain, and “all is intact.” “It could have been worse,” he wrote.
- On December 26, James had an MRI, and the results were said to come back clean; he was listed as day-to-day. “Dodged a bullet,” James tweeted. “#BackInNoTime.”
- A day later, sources told ESPN the Lakers were “prepared” for James to miss multiple games.
- On January 4, after James had missed four games, The Athletic reported he’d be evaluated again in a week.
- In the days that followed, the Lakers announced James’s status only one or two games in advance—with the occasional news that he’s “getting shots up.”
- On January 15, James’s agent, Rich Paul, revealed that the MRI was not clean, and had actually shown a tear. His camp was given, at best, a three-week recovery time, even as the public was led to believe James was “day-to-day.” James likely had this information when he hashtagged—the hashtag was a crime in and of itself—#BackInNoTime. Paul toldESPN his client would miss at least the next two games.
- On January 19, coach Luke Walton was hopeful James would return to practice the next day, and he’s now participating in noncontact drills.
- On Wednesday, James was officially ruled out of Thursday’s game against the Timberwolves.