{"id":26365,"date":"2025-07-26T21:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T21:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/26365\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T21:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T21:23:07","slug":"college-basketballs-no-1-scorer-may-not-join-luka-lebron-on-lakers-after-devastating-injury-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/26365\/","title":{"rendered":"College basketball&#8217;s No. 1 scorer may not join Luka, LeBron on Lakers after devastating injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following the 2025 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers, like every other franchise, identified viable two-way contract candidates.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers had plenty of options at their disposal after landing Arkansas star forward Adou Thiero in the second round of the event.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>According to<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1938425169992708104\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania<\/a>, college basketball No. 1 scorer Eric Dixon agreed to a deal with Los Angeles almost instantly.<\/p>\n<p>However, a foot injury sidelined Dixon for the entire Summer League, denying him an opportunity to make a lasting impression on the franchise.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8767nIKW41U\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Lakers Nation\u2019s Trevor Lane;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Lakers Nation\u2019s Trevor Lane<\/a> recently pointed out that due to the 24-year-old\u2019s devastating lower-body setback, there\u2019s a chance he may join Luka Doncic and LeBron James next season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe did not officially sign with the Lakers on a two-way,&#8221; Lane said on his podcast Friday. &#8220;My understanding, and coming from sources close to the team, is that he was unlikely to get that two-way contract due to the injury.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029Vakw2IH60eBZ4UO1Iz1b\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t know exactly what the injury is. I know he rolled past me in Summer League on a scooter with his foot in a boot. So, that&#8217;s obviously not a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe he sticks around, he gets a spot in the G League with South Bay or something, and then maybe he gets a two-way spot after all. The Lakers do have an open two-way spot right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dixon was a superstar with Villanova during the 2024-25 college basketball campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The Wildcats grossly underachieved under Kyle Neptune, but Dixon was among the minimal bright spots for the program.<\/p>\n<p>Dixon, a versatile and physical 6-foot-8 forward who\u2019s challenging to contain, made life stressful for opponents all year.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The undrafted rookie averaged 23.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, shooting\u00a0\u00a045.1% from the field and 40.7% from three in 35 contests.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s unclear if Dixon will begin his career with the Lakers, his intriguing skill set will likely enable him to land an NBA gig sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n<p>More NBA:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/golden-state-warriors\/news\/former-warriors-forward-g-league-champion-joins-victor-wembanyama-spurs\/5de515690ecd3d5166666f97\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Former Warriors forward, G-League champion joins Victor Wembanyama on Spurs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Former Warriors forward, G-League champion joins Victor Wembanyama on Spurs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the 2025 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers, like every other franchise, identified viable two-way contract candidates.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[21172,49,48,547,21169,21173,2327,1522,8231,12887,459,21170,82,5406,21171],"class_list":["post-26365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-adou-thiero","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-college-basketball","tag-eric-dixon","tag-foot-injury","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-shams-charania","tag-sports","tag-summer-league","tag-trevor-lane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26365","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=26365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}