Julius Randle Suffers Serious Leg Injury In Season Opener
The night was already depressing enough for the Los Angeles Lakers. Down 26 points late in the fourth quarter to the Houston Rockets and exiled Laker center Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant and company had little to be happy about in their season opener. But then promising rookie Julius Randle went down and the gloomy situation got even worse.
With less than seven minutes to play in a blowout game, Randle drove to the basket and collided with two Rockets players. He went to the ground, but not many people thought anything of it until they noticed he was still down at the end of the next possession. Minutes later the trainers were out on the floor with a stretcher and TNT’s Rachel Nichols was reporting that he had fractured his tibia in his right leg.
Julius Randle on the ground. Stretcher is coming out. pic.twitter.com/BYCAmJfTqW
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) October 29, 2014
No matter your fandom, seeing that happen to such a young and promising player is terrible. For the Lakers, Randle was one of the few bright spots of the upcoming season. Kobe being back on the floor was a source of joy of L.A. fans, but the Black Mamba’s remaining time in the league is limited and Randle represents the future. It appears the dismal present is going to prolong that future for a bit longer.
This comes just days after Steve Nash ruled himself out for the entire 2014-15 season with recurring nerve damage in his back. This is the last year of Nash’s contract, so it appears the Hall of Fame point guard may have already played his last NBA game. After dealing with a ton of injuries the last two seasons, watching another player go down has got to be getting old for Los Angeles.
Kobe Bryant holding Julius Randle by the left hand as the rookie is being lifted onto a stretcher. This is a devastating scene.
— Bill Oram (@billoram) October 29, 2014
All in all, this was pretty much the worst possible start to the Lakers’ 2014-15 season possible. Randle could be done for the entire season. When the trainers were putting a cast on his leg on the baseline, Randle was crying out in pain whenever they touched his lower leg. A broken leg is actually more preferable to an Achilles injury, but watching the rookie being carried off the floor of Staples Center on a stretcher in his very first NBA game was sad not only for Randle, but for the Lakers and the rest of NBA fans as well.
Randle scored two points in 14 minutes, going 1-for-3 from the floor. The Lakers lost 108-90.
We’ll put it this way: normally a 18-point loss would be the biggest story line of the night. Normally we’d be talking about how far the Lakers are from the playoffs or about how Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard nearly got into it a few plays before. But when a 19-year-old goes down in his first career NBA game, that makes a disappointing season opener even more depressing. And make no mistake, this season is now going to be a lot harder to watch for even the most avid of Lakers fans now.
Not even Laker haters can take joy in this level of bad
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) October 29, 2014