{"id":201215,"date":"2025-10-09T22:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201215\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T22:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:36:08","slug":"lebron-james-will-miss-opening-night-of-his-record-23rd-nba-season-due-to-sciatica-nanaimonewsnow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201215\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James will miss opening night of his record 23rd NBA season due to sciatica | NanaimoNewsNOW"},"content":{"rendered":"

James began camp for his unprecedented 23rd NBA season<\/a> last week with the lower-body nerve injury<\/a> keeping him off the court. The Lakers held their sixth full practice of camp Thursday without the top scorer in NBA history, who also missed both of their first two preseason games while he worked to get back into competitive condition.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to play the cards you\u2019re dealt,\u201d Redick said. \u201cThat\u2019s a shame, but that\u2019s just the reality. \u2026 No one has got any time with LeBron. That\u2019s not just (new center Deandre Ayton), but everybody. (James) hasn\u2019t been on the court with the team, but that\u2019s just the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redick and the rest of the Lakers expressed excitement last week about the chance to have their first full training camp together with James and Luka Doncic, who scarcely ever got to practice with his new team after joining Los Angeles<\/a> in the middle of last season.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Lakers are installing their offense and building court chemistry during this camp largely without James on the court. They\u2019re also getting limited time so far with Doncic, who is making a deliberate return to full speed after his participation in EuroBasket during a busy summer.<\/p>\n

The Lakers return to the court Sunday at home against Golden State.<\/p>\n

Doncic participated in some full practices last week, including scrimmages, but Ayton said Wednesday that he would love to get more practice time with the Lakers\u2019 two biggest stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve just been waiting on,\u201d Ayton said. \u201cJust got to prepare. JJ and the coaching staff probably have something where they can put stuff together for all of us to really grow chemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n

James traveled with the Lakers on their preseason trips to Palm Desert, California, and San Francisco, but he has been performing individual drills and doing his own workouts.<\/p>\n

James made news and scared his fans earlier this week when he teased \u201cThe Second Decision\u201d<\/a> on social media \u2014 for what turned out to be an advertisement for a cognac brand.<\/p>\n

James has repeatedly said he doesn\u2019t know whether he will retire after this season, only saying that the end to the longest career in NBA history will be \u201csooner than later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redick had said he was hopeful that James and Doncic would participate in at least one preseason game that could be used as a \u201cdress rehearsal\u201d for the regular season, but that won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

Redick still expects Doncic to play in the preseason at least once. The Lakers have four preseason games remaining, including two in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n

Greg Beacham, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James began camp for his unprecedented 23rd NBA season last week with the lower-body nerve injury keeping him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,459,44,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-201215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}