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LeBron James Lakers Injury Concerns Raised With Practice Gear

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sean Deveney | Last updated Apr 16, 2025 9:37 PM ET

When you're 40 years old and playing perhaps the most athletically demanding major sport on the planet deep into your 22nd season, it probably should not be surprising that you find yourself a bit nicked up. That's the case for Lakers star LeBron James, who returned from a groin injury last last month but is still dealing with the injury as the playoffs are set to begin this weekend.

The Lakers secured the No. 3 seed in the West, and will face a difficult series against the No. 6 seed Minnesota Timberwolves.

Despite the Lakers' advantage in the seeding, fact is, they won just one more game this season than the Timberwolves--50 for L.A. and 49 for Minnesota. In fact, Minnesota had a much better net rating than the Lakers, at plus-5.1, which was fourth in the NBA. The Lakers' net rating was 1.2, which was 14th.

The Wolves and Lakers split their season series, though three of the four games occured before the Lakers made their blockbuster trade for Luka Doncic in February. The Lakers won the only post-trade game between the teams, on Feb. 27.

All that is to say that the Lakers will need to be 100% if they're to oust a tough Timberwolves bunch from the playoffs. And at practice on Wednesday, it was obvious that James might not be 100%.

A glimpse of Lakers practice. LeBron James is wearing a sleeve on his left leg. He exited his last game of the regular season last week because of discomfort in his left hip and groin. pic.twitter.com/oHGWI9KGRR
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 16, 2025

According to ESPN's Dave McMenamin, James is still dealing with the groin injury, plus a hip injury, to boot. He is wearing a sleeve on his leg to help ease the pain.

McMenamin wrote: "A glimpse of Lakers practice. LeBron James is wearing a sleeve on his left leg. He exited his last game of the regular season last week because of discomfort in his left hip and groin."

James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 assists and 8.2 rebounds this year, shooting 51.3% from the field, the best 40-year-old season in NBA history. He played in 70 games.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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