Despite a foot injury, superstar LeBron James stays on the field and celebrates a very important comeback win in the NBA with his Los Angeles Lakers at the Dallas Mavericks. But the 38-year-old is threatened with a break after his risky continuation.
On his way out of the arena, LeBron James could hardly put his right foot down, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar hobbled through the catacombs in Dallas, visibly injured. "It's better, that's for sure," said the 38-year-old, wanting to calm things down. But his injury and how he is dealing with it give cause for concern.
At the end of the third quarter, James went down under the basket in the NBA game with the Mavericks (111:108) and grabbed his foot. "I heard a bang," said the four-time NBA champion on TV, clearly speaking to his teammates several times. But he carried on - as if nothing had happened. "I definitely didn't want to go into the dressing room," said James, "I understood the importance of the game and felt like we could still win with our momentum." He was right, LA won despite being 27 points behind, it was the biggest comeback of the current NBA season so far.
And what's next? The foot will be "observed for the next few days," James said. In the last quarter, i.e. injured, he played ten of a total of 37 minutes and scored eleven of his 26 points. Because coach Darvin Ham allegedly had no idea about the bang. "I didn't hear that," said the head coach, "I didn't hear him say that." The Lakers have their backs to the wall in the race for a playoff berth. James therefore last spoke in the Allstar break of "23 of the most important games of my career in the main round" that are now imminent. And for this he is obviously ready to make sacrifices, to grit his teeth.
After beating Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time NBA point record, James recently took a break with left foot pain. The exceptional player has ankle problems from time to time. So the typical basketball player injury, Dirk Nowitzki can sing a song about it. The traces of his career are enormous, the German NBA hero hobbles through life due to irreparable damage. James knows that too, and yet he stayed in the game, even though he could hear that something seemed to have broken on the foot. "He's fine," said Ham, "our medics are looking at him. If there's anything official tomorrow we'll see."
