2023-10-06 07:58:58
LOS ANGELES – Coming off a National Basketball Association (NBA) season in which he missed 27 games due to injuries, including one to his right foot, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will not play in the team’s pre-season opener on Saturday against hosts the Golden State Warriors.
But the forward, who turns 39 in December and is the NBA’s oldest active player, still plans to see plenty of action during the pre-season ahead of his 21st NBA season.
“Six pre-season games, so hopefully I can get to at least half of them,” he said on Thursday. “But we’ll see. I think every game will dictate it. I will not be playing in Saturday’s game, that’s for sure, in the Bay. But we’ll see after that.”
Lakers coach Darvin Ham offered glowing reviews of James’ performance at training camp.
“He’s 100 per cent healthy,” he said. “He looks fine. He looks like third- or fourth-year LeBron.”
The Lakers and their medical staff will continue to keep close tabs on James, along with Mike Mancias, the star’s long-time medical trainer.
“We collaborate and communicate on what those steps will be,” Ham added.
“We make sure we come up with an effective plan. The beautiful thing about the way we move forward is one, he’s in phenomenal shape. Two, he’s probably got more years in experience outside of (Anthony Davis) than the entire team combined in terms of games played and minutes played. And he takes phenomenal care of himself.”
Following Saturday’s game, the Lakers play the Brooklyn Nets on Monday in Las Vegas, then face the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday in Anaheim.
The team then host the Warriors (Oct 13) and the Milwaukee Bucks (Oct 15) before closing the exhibition season in Palm Springs against the Phoenix Suns on Oct 19. Five days later, they open the season at the Denver Nuggets.
“Just kind of easing into it,” Ham said of the plan for James. “The fact that our roster is what it is, he doesn’t have to start the season with his cape on, so to speak. The help that he has around him will allow him to not have to be full throttle in every practice and every pre-season game.”
The Warriors, meanwhile, have been awarded an expansion franchise by the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), with the team set to begin play in 2025.
This is the 13th team for the WNBA but the first to join since 2008.
The Warriors now are the sixth NBA franchise to have a WNBA team, joining the Indiana Pacers (Indiana Fever), the Minnesota Timberwolves (Minnesota Lynx), the Nets (New York Liberty), the Suns (Phoenix Mercury) and the Washington Wizards (Washington Mystics). REUTERS
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