Lakers insider on LeBron’s knee injury: ‘I don’t think this is something that is going to linger’

During the fourth quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 5 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the opening round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Lakers forward LeBron James suffered an injury. An MRI later revealed his injury to be a Grade 2 medial collateral ligament sprain in his left knee.

The Lakers’ season was over after losing Game 5 to guard Anthony Edwards and company, so James didn’t sit out any playoff games with the injury.

However, he did not attend the Met Gala in New York earlier this month due to his knee injury.

Lakers insider Jovan Buha of The Athletic recently touched on James’ injury and indicated that it’s not something fans of the storied franchise should be overly worried about. He doesn’t think the injury is “something that’s going to linger.”

“He’ll still be working out and staying in shape while he is resting the knee,” Buha said of James. “Then once it’s cleared, he will ramp up and get back to being LeBron. I don’t think this is something that is going to linger into training camp, into the preseason, into next season. I think it is something that he will have a full offseason to recover from and be fine going into next year.”

It’s worth noting James’ future in the NBA and with the Lakers is still unclear, as he hasn’t said definitively whether he plans on playing another season in the best basketball league in the world. He’s the NBA’s oldest active player at 40 years old and just wrapped up his 22nd campaign.

However, ESPN’s Shams Charania has reported that the expectation is for James to play at least one more NBA season before he calls it quits on his illustrious and incredibly impressive career. Plus, what Buha had to say about James’ recovery process suggests that he plans on suiting up in the 2025-26 season.

The Lakers headed into the 2025 NBA Playoffs with relatively high expectations with a star-studded duo of James and guard Luka Doncic, yet they lost to the No. 6 seed Timberwolves in decisive fashion. James and Doncic carried their weight offensively, but they didn’t get enough help from Los Angeles’ supporting cast. The Timberwolves also had far more size than the Lakers did, and they used that to their advantage.

Hopefully, James and the Lakers can shake their first-round exit from the this season with a strong start to the 2025-26 campaign.