EL SEGUNDO — The Lakers announced on Thursday afternoon that LeBron James will be sidelined for at least 3-4 weeks because of nerve pain, meaning James won’t be available for the start of the 2025-26 season.
The team’s statement, which was released after practice concluded, said that James will be reevaluated in about 3-4 weeks because of sciatica on his right side, and that any further updates will be provided at that time.
The timeline provided by the Lakers means the team is scheduled to play five to nine games before James is expected to be reevaluated, including the Oct. 21 regular-season opener against the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
It’ll be the first season-opener of his career that James will be sidelined for, with the 40-year-old star forward entering an unprecedented 23rd NBA season. He has already played the most combined regular-season and playoffs career minutes in league history (71,103).
James had been a modified participant in practices since training camp started last week, mainly doing individual work, after Coach JJ Redick said that James had been dealing with nerve irritation in his glute.
When asked on Thursday whether there was a plan for James in the preseason about 1 ½ hours before the Lakers released their statement about his status, Redick responded that James was “on his own timeline.”
James, who hasn’t spoken with reporters since the team’s Media Day on Sept. 29, told ESPN last week that he was physically not where he wanted to be entering training camp and that he was still “ramping things back up.”
“That’s always the challenge: how can I get my body to as close to 100%,” he added. “Obviously, coming off the injury, the MCL sprain of last year. Obviously, the foot has kind of given me problems from time to time throughout the course of the last few seasons. That’s always the challenge, seeing can I get my body as close to 100% where I can go out there and perform at a high level.”
Before the team’s announcement on Thursday, Redick had acknowledged the Lakers were entering “uncharted territory” with James.
“I don’t think there’s a proven way to handle someone who has this much mileage, this many minutes, been asked to do so many things on both ends of the court,” Redick said. “We asked a lot of him last year, we asked a lot of him to start the year in camp, so it’s just working as a partnership and trying to figure it out.”
This story will be updated.
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