In the 2020-21 season, the Los Angeles Lakers were coming off winning the NBA championship in the Walt Disney World Resort bubble, and LeBron James was coming off a fantastic season during which he led the league in assists per game and won his fourth finals MVP award. Despite having just several weeks of rest in between winning the 2020 title and starting training camp, the Lakers seemed poised to repeat as world champions, and James was seemingly getting better with age.
But late that season, the then-36-year-old suffered a gruesome, unlucky injury. During a home game against the Atlanta Hawks on March 10, 2021, forward Solomon Hill crashed into James’ ankle. James missed over a month as a result, and afterward, the Lakers lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Phoenix Suns after co-superstar Anthony Davis injured his groin in Game 4 of that series.
In an in-depth series of interviews with Dave McMenamin of ESPN throughout this season, James admitted that he hasn’t fully recovered from that injury.
“My foot and my ankle ain’t been the same since,” James said. “Ever since that injury, I’ve been fighting uphill to get it back to normal. But it’s been a little blah ever since.”
That injury did a lot to torpedo L.A.’s season. Coming into that game, the team was second in the Western Conference with a 28-13 record, even though it had been conserving its energy for a while. When the superstar returned to action at the end of April, L.A. was in fifth place. After playing in two games, James missed six more in a row, and during that time, the Lakers fell all the way to seventh place, which is where they finished the regular season.
Had it not been for the injuries to James and Davis (Davis also missed 30 games during the regular season with a calf strain and Achilles tendinosis), perhaps the Lakers would’ve gotten a real shot at another ring.
“What could have been, for sure,” James added. “I was playing some of the best basketball of my career up until that point and leading this franchise in the right direction and then something like that happens, a high ankle sprain, and there’s nothing you can do about that.”
Since then, James has continued to play fantastic basketball and defy the usual aging process. But with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves forced to miss most of this April with injuries of their own, perhaps James is starting to show some signs of fatigue after getting the Lakers out to a shocking 3-0 lead over the Houston Rockets in the first round of the postseason.
He shot 2-of-9 from the field in a 19-point Game 4 loss, and he had eight turnovers apiece in Game 3 and Game 4. On Wednesday, he had 25 points on a not-too-shabby 9-of-20 shooting, but he missed all six of his 3-point attempts. The Lakers lost, 99-93, and all the pressure has suddenly shifted to them as the series will shift to Southeast Texas for Game 6 on Friday.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: LeBron: ‘My foot and my ankle ain’t been the same since’ 2021 injury
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
