The 38-year-old Los Angeles Lakers injured his right foot during a layup attempt on Dwight Powell in the third quarter during a game against the Dallas Mavericks on February 26.
- Feb 28, 2023
AceShowbiz - LeBron James was seen limping as he left the American Airlines Center in Dallas after Los Angeles Lakers' win over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, February 26. The athlete injured his right foot during a layup attempt on Dwight Powell in the third quarter.
Despite that, the injury didn't stop LeBron from continuing to play. "It's been better," he said when asked about his foot afterward. "That's for sure."
The NBA star added, "But I definitely wasn't going to go to the locker room and not finish the game out tonight. Just understood the importance of the game and then with the momentum that we had, I felt like we could still win after being down. We'll monitor it the next couple days, see how it feels and go from there."
During ABC's TV coverage, LeBron appeared to tell his teammates that he "heard a pop." However, Lakers head coach Darwin Ham James told reporters, "I didn't hear that, I didn't hear him say that at all."
LeBron earned victory after finishing the game with 26 points on 10-for-23 shooting, eight rebounds, and three assists in 37 minutes. The athlete scored 11 points in the fourth quarter after being hurt, relying primarily on his post-up game to score points.
"When you're that good, you can - I'm not going to say, 'Play with the game,' but he's obviously really athletic and if it hindered him a little bit rolling his ankle, he's got that to go to," Lakers wing Austin Reaves said. "So it speaks to his skill set."
The Lakers will continue their three-game road trip with back-to-back games against the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday and Wednesday and it remains to be seen what James status for those games will be. "He's good," Darwin said. "Our medical people are looking at him now. He'll be reevaluated again in the morning. So once we get some type of official word tomorrow, we'll go from there. But as of right now, he's good."
