Julius Randle’s charisma and passion for the game of basketball make it easy to cheer for him as a person and a player even though he wears purple and yellow. The Laker’s selected the 19-year-old rookie out of the University of Kentucky with the seventh overall pick and had great hopes for his future.
Even though he had struggled early in the preseason, and was slated to come off the bench behind teammate Carlos Boozer, many were mentioning him as at least a top five candidate for rookie of the year when he started to come on strong just before the beginning of the season.
Then it happened. On a drive to the basket in the very first game of his career, a 108-90 loss to the Houston Rockets, Julius Randle who scored two points in fourteen minutes, went down with what originally looked like a twisted ankle, but he failed to get up as the action switched to the other side of the court.
“He got bumped in midair but it wasn’t like he collided with anybody. It just kind of looked like his left foot kind of kicked his right leg and he comes down and he just grabbed his leg. I don’t know if it was a freak accident or what but it was something that just didn’t look that bad to end up being as bad as it is.” Head Coach Byron Scott said.
His childhood idol, Kobe Bryant, consoled him and the home crowd went silent, as the medical staff worked on his leg. Then his teammates lifted him onto a stretcher and he was carted off the floor.
The original report was of a broken right leg. Then X-rays confirmed that Randle’s worst nightmare had come true as he was scheduled for surgery on a fractured fibula. (sports injury alert)
The bad news is the young power forward will miss the rest of his rookie season. The good news is he seems to have the full support of the Lakers players and staff, past and present.
Scott said, “Having Kobe here, who was going through some injuries in the last year or so, definitely will help. He’s living proof that you can come back from injuries that a lot of people said were career-ending type of injuries. Not saying that Julius’ [injury] is … but he’s got one of the best players to ever play the game that can console him and talk to him about kind of moving on.”
He was also sent encouraging words from James Worthy who tweeted. “I had the same injury as @J30_RANDLE – he’ll recover fine. #StayStrong.”
This isn’t the first broken bone Randle has had. He broke his right foot in high-school, and recovered from it well enough to be a lottery pick in the NBA after just one year at Kentucky where he led the Wildcats to the Championship game. Hopefully he can call on that same strength to get him back on pace in his Lakers Career.
He will also be able to gather strength from Bryant who said. “I think what this franchise has always been good about doing is surrounding young players with players who have come before. He has a great cast around him — myself and James Worthy and AC Green and Magic [Johnson]. We’re all here. We’ll help him through this. He’ll come back a basketball player. That’s the goal, is to try to find a silver lining within anything.”
With the support of teammates, coaches, and fans who have developed a love for Randle and his hard work, this should just be another bump in the road for the Rookie, as he makes his way back.
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