{"id":162083,"date":"2025-10-09T18:03:56","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=162083"},"modified":"2025-10-09T18:03:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:03:56","slug":"lebron-james-enters-historic-23rd-season-career-first-injury-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/09\/lebron-james-enters-historic-23rd-season-career-first-injury-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James Enters Historic 23rd Season With Career First"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Lakers forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> is in uncharted territory as the first player in NBA history to play 23 seasons. As a result, the Lakers were trying to find ways to limit the wear on his body prior to the 2025-26 season opener. Ironically, he had already missed the first day of training camp with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/30\/lebron-james-held-out-lakers-first-day-practice-injury\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">nerve irritation in his glutes<\/a>. However, it isn&#8217;t just preseason that James is in danger of missing now.<\/p>\n<h2>LeBron James Enters Historic 23rd Season With Career First<\/h2>\n<p>After being diagnosed with sciatica on his right side, James will be out for at least 3-4 weeks, per ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania. That timeline will lead to James being sidelined for a regular season opener for the first time in his career. Suffice it to say, the king&#8217;s historic campaign has not gotten off to a roaring start.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Breaking: Lakers star LeBron James will be sidelined for at least 3 to 4 weeks due to sciatica on his right side. He is out for the start of the 2025-26 NBA season.<\/p>\n<p>Get breaking news alerts from Shams Charania through the ESPN app: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QEjDpr2WVy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/QEjDpr2WVy<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/l6CVkP0tBZ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/l6CVkP0tBZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ESPN (@espn) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/espn\/status\/1976395622862258364?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If he heals quickly, he could theoretically be back in action before the end of the month. However, as he ages, it seems to take him longer to heal from injuries. In fact, he&#8217;s played fewer than 60 games in four of the last seven seasons. Therefore, it may be more reasonable to expect a November return for James.<\/p>\n<h3>Winning Without LeBron James<\/h3>\n<p>Keeping that in perspective, the Lakers will play <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/schedule\/_\/name\/lal\/seasontype\/2\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">six games in October<\/a>. After facing the Golden State Warriors in the season opener on Oct. 21, they go on to face the Minnesota Timberwolves (twice), Sacramento Kings, Portland Trail Blazers, and Memphis Grizzlies. With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a> in tow, L.A. will be given a fighter&#8217;s chance when they face contenders like the Timberwolves, Kings and Grizzlies. Even without Doncic, they may be able to take down the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/30\/billups-wants-fiery-competition-for-the-blazers-starting-lineup\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">hungry but often hapless<\/a> Blazers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_162085\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-162085\" style=\"width: 2434px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-162085\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27204449_168404789_lowres.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2434\" height=\"1622\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27204449_168404789_lowres.jpg 2434w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27204449_168404789_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27204449_168404789_lowres-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27204449_168404789_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27204449_168404789_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27204449_168404789_lowres-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27204449_168404789_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27204449_168404789_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2434px) 100vw, 2434px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-162085\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sep 29, 2025; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) during media day at UCLA Health Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So far as November is concerned, the Lakers have three opponents the first week of the month: the Blazers, Miami Heat, and San Antonio Spurs. They have four opponents the second week: the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Oklahoma City Thunder, and New Orleans Pelicans. On the surface, this would seem to be a less foreboding gauntlet than what they find in their October slate. To that point, only the Thunder and the Heat are universally respected as contending teams. However, their other opponents aren&#8217;t just going to lay down after completing <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/07\/hawks-defensive-duo-dyson-daniels-nickeil-alexander-walker-new-era\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">major offseason trades<\/a> to improve.<\/p>\n<p>In sum, the Lakers could get off to a decent start in 2025-26. Nonetheless, it won&#8217;t be a cake walk. In fact, it&#8217;ll be a tremendous opportunity for Doncic to prove that the franchise <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/22\/lakers-abandon-2026-2027-plans-after-lukas-dominance\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">is in good hands<\/a> without James.<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 David Gonzales-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James is in uncharted territory as the first player in NBA history to play 23 seasons. As a result, the Lakers were trying to find ways to limit the wear on his body prior to the 2025-26 season opener. Ironically, he had already missed the first day of training camp [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":162086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,62,3],"tags":[38,1133,4745],"class_list":["post-162083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba-injuries"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162088,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162083\/revisions\/162088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}