As LeBron James continues to increase in age, he will have to battle a new opponent – Father Time. The 40-year-old LA Laker star is now set to miss almost a month of the upcoming NBA season after being diagnosed with sciatica. This has led to fans and analysts showing great concern for what this may mean for the 4x NBA champion. Basketball Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley, on the other hand, doesn’t have many problems with it.
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On Thursday, October 9, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported that James won’t suit up for the first 3-4 weeks of the season. Before that news broke, James was sitting out of training camp due to what team officials called a ‘nerve irritation in the glute’.
This isn’t a great start to the 2025-26 season for James, who is typically reliable to play at least 65 games each season. While plenty of Los Angeles Lakers fans worry about what to make of the beginning of the season without James, Barkley is happy to assure them that its going to be just fine.
“I have no problem with a guy being that old sitting out,” Barkley said on The Rich Eisen Show. “He’s not going to gain anything in the preseason. LeBron has paid his dues way beyond what he’s done for the NBA.”
In regard to James legacy, Barkley is undeniably in the right. LeBron has provided 22 seasons of healthy basketball, which includes 21 straight seasons of All-NBA level play. A month away from the game is miniscule to the grand scheme of everything he has accomplished.
However, the impact this has on the Lakers is another conversation altogether. Without the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, a lot of the pressure falls on Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. But even in that regard, Barkley doesn’t see this injury being a problem for their ultimate goal.
“The Lakers they just got to stay healthy for the playoffs. Doesn’t matter what they accomplish during the regular season,” Barkley proclaimed.
Of course, the playoffs won’t matter if the Lakers aren’t in a position to compete in it. Thankfully, Doncic already seems to be in great form, as evident from the kind of show he put during the recently concluded EuroBasket. And now that he has been firmly anointed as the face of the franchise, the Slovenian star is hyped up to live up to the challenge.
“He’s [LeBron] a great player, he can help us a lot. But at the end of the day, our mentality needs to be ‘next man up,'” Doncic said to Dave McMenamin.
Going through adversity helps every NBA team make that jump from good to great. The Lakers going through that now could prove to be extremely beneficial as they reach close for a deep postseason push.
