After a great opening night, it’s a shame we had to see an injury to a Rookie that was only 18 minutes into his career. Ending his first season.
According to Yahoo! Sports, Julius Randle will be out for the 2014-15 season with a broken tibia.
“Where the broken bone was held together, the bone had rotated slightly,” one NBA executive told Yahoo Sports. “It was not aligned perfectly. Our guys felt that, despite [Randle] not feeling pain, it should be fixed for long-term stability.”
Several general managers had come to that conclusion based on the recommendations of medical staff, but the Los Angeles Lakers studied the foot, the screw inserted within it and chose a different course. The Lakers selected Randle seventh overall and disagreed with the findings of several teams choosing inside and out of the lottery. The Lakers had access to study the foot longer and closer, and declared unnecessary a procedure that would’ve cost Randle two months of summertime recovery.
As it turned out, it wouldn’t be Randle’s right foot on the opening night of his NBA career, but his right tibia. He broke his leg on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, crumpling to the floor and leaving a stunned, sober Staples Center. It was a jarring sight, a 19-year-old, full of talent and character and promise, lost for months now.
This is the unfortunate side of the NBA. An injury to such a promising talent is never wanted and was hard to watch him getting carted off.
