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Julius Randle's Injury And The Worst Thing About Sports

Paolo Uggetti |
October 29, 2014 | 12:40 a.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Julius Randle broke his tibia last night and could require surgery that would end his season (@SInow/Twitter)
Julius Randle broke his tibia last night and could require surgery that would end his season (@SInow/Twitter)

I’ll be honest. I am not a Laker fan. In fact, I am the complete opposite.

Having spent a year in Boston when I was just a kid, I began to watch sports and naturally, I ascribed to the fan membership of the Boston sports teams in the area. 

So yes, I am a Celtics fan living in Los Angeles. 

I enjoy watching the Lakers lose and I enjoy watching their fans freak out about losing or about the torturous reality that—gasp!—they won’t make the playoffs again this year. I enjoy watching them unabashedly defend Kobe against anything and everything, and I enjoy when they still try to pose the Kobe vs. Jordan question once in a while. 

But in Tuesday night's game there was nothing I could enjoy. There was no rivalry and no disdain. There was only complete sympathy and utter disappointment, as their first-round pick Julius Randle fell awkwardly and broke his tibia during the fourth quarter of their 108-90 loss to the Houston Rockets. 

Tuesday night, I was not a Celtic fan. On Tuesday night, I was a basketball fan. And on that night, the basketball fan in me didn’t see team colors and shirt logos. There was no purple and gold to root against or mock, there were no Laker players to talk trash about. 

There was only the gut-wrenching realization that a kid my age—yes, literally a 19-year old kid—had his season cut short so prematurely and his lifelong dream of playing in the NBA put on hold so painfully, and so abruptly. 

Kobe Bryant comforts the injured Julius Randle after during Tuesday night's game. (@Lakers/Twitter)
Kobe Bryant comforts the injured Julius Randle after during Tuesday night's game. (@Lakers/Twitter)

He was supposed to be the bright spot in an otherwise mediocre Laker season. He was supposed to be the one Kobe Bryant would mentor and the one he would concurrently make his successor. He was supposed to get many minutes, a luxury some rookies can only hope to attain in order to gain experience. 

Coming out of Kentucky, Randle was supposed to be an All-Star caliber player with great potential. Now, thanks to an injury that could potentially haunt him for the rest of his career if it does not heal properly, we will have to wait at least another year to see the power forward develop into what we hope he can still be. 

The NBA, as are most of the major sports leagues, is about hope. Rookies come into the league full of hope, as there is truly only one place to go but up. The reality is that isn’t exactly the case. The possibility of injuries can still bring you down. 

And really it is injuries that deserve our hate, not our rival teams or our most disliked players. As basketball fans, injuries deprive us of greatness, and leave us asking pointless questions of “what could have been...” 

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But more importantly, injuries deprive players themselves of their livelihood. Yes, they will still get the millions of dollars they signed their contracts for, but they lose the one thing they love the most: playing the game of basketball. 

The NBA season is only a day old and players are already nursing injuries and sitting out games, as we’re already being short-changed and deprived of potential greatness.

The Thunder's Kevin Durant—the incumbent MVP—is already set to miss 6-8 weeks with a broken bone in his foot. Breakout Wizards shooter Bradley Beal is set to miss at least a month with a fractured wrist. Once point "demi-guard" Steve Nash and his recurring back problems have all but made his retirement certain. And if you had forgotten, Paul George is out for the whole year with a broken leg as well. Now, Randle breaks his tibia, and injuries continue to hold down the title for the absolute worst part about sports.

The NBA is where amazing happens. It should not be where so many injuries happen. 

Now, with our prayers directed towards Chicago where a certain former MVP makes his long-awaited return to the hardwood, let’s hope that for everyone’s sake, injuries do not continue and become a heart-wrenching trend depriving both players and ourselves of the greatness of the game of basketball. 

I think that even a Celtic fan and a Laker fan can agree on that.

Reach Staff Reporter Paolo Uggetti here or follow him on Twitter.



 

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