Lakers News: Randle’s Injury ‘Not a Fluke’
I know this is going to hurt, given the momentum the Lakers seem to be riding into this weekend’s Summer League, but think back to opening night of last season. Kobe Bryant was calling Dwight Howard various offensive iterations of “soft” and Julius Randle – the Lakers new hope – was on the court, ready to impress.
Then, well, you know. Randle took off from that right leg, fell and never got back up.
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ESPN’s Baxter Holmes wrote an article that discussed the number of serious injuries last year and whether they are correlated to anything athletes are doing differently from prior generations. The answer: yes.
This is the final line of the article, and is of Randle discussing his and other rookies who missed time.
"(Randle) was asked again about the injuries to he and other members of the 2014 rookie class. Sitting on the edge of a table outside the trainer’s room, he shook his head and stared at the wall.“It’s not a fluke.”"
Holmes examines four factors that might lead to the injuries and does so while speaking to prospects who all missed time. Holmes also released a separate article which detailed a bump on the leg Randle broke which had given him some problems leading up to the fracture.
Long story short: we might have to rethink the way young athletes are pushed and developed as they rise through the ranks of youth sports and into high school and collegiate athletics. One thing that did show through some of the article was the amount of research teams need to do to be successful in that forum. All teams are looking for any edge they can get and any organization that can keep its players on the court most consistently will obviously be in a better place.
The Lakers also announced today that Randle will be held out of the Lakers’ second game of Summer League, which will take place Saturday, so as not to put too much stress on that right leg.