Los Angeles' rookie forward and No. 7 overall pick, Julius Randle, suffered a broken leg last night in the Lakers' season opener against the Houston Rockets, WKYT reported.
The former Kentucky Wildcat collided with two Rockets players under the basket halfway through the fourth quarter. Randle was visibly in pain as Los Angeles' medical staff tended to him before immobilizing his leg and taking him out on a stretcher. Lakers' star Kobe Bryant held Randle's hand in support while he was down.
Randle, who had just 2 points in 14 minutes Tuesday night, was expected to be an important piece in Los Angeles' future. However, his rookie season is now in doubt.
"It is heartbreaking, because I saw him all summer," coach Byron Scott said. "I saw the work that he was putting in. I saw the progression that he was making, the steps that he was taking to get better. And his first game, he goes down. I don't think anybody in that locker room is happy about the way we played, but we're even more saddened about the fact that we lost one of our young guys."
Scott said that other players told him they heard a "pop" when the 19-year-old Randle went down.
"Even for myself, being a veteran and dealing with something like this, it's tough," said Bryant, who missed most of last season with two major injuries. "For him being a 19-year-old kid, it's tough. That's what we're here for. We're here to pick him up and take it day by day."
"It's a fluke injury," he added. "There's nothing you can do about that. He worked extremely hard, he trained extremely hard. Then something like this happens, so you've kind of got to give yourself up to that and control what you can control, and what happens, happens. And now it's on him to control how he handles this."
Scott said that he spoke with Randle after the game.
"I just told him to stay strong," Scott said. "Adversity tests the true character of a man. This is some adversity that we're facing with a young guy being out, and obviously, it's something that he's facing. I feel for him. I feel extremely bad for him. He was kind of crying, and I just told him to stay strong and that it's going to make him a better basketball player."
ESPN's J.A. Adande summed up what the loss means to the Lakers and their fans.
"The present is now paused for the future of the Lakers," Adande wrote. "Randle is the only player on the roster to whom the Lakers have rights in 2018-19. He and Nick Young (currently sidelined with a thumb injury) are the only players on the books for 2016-17. In sports, hope is the only tolerable alternative to expectations, and at the moment, the Lakers don't have a grasp on either. At the moment, the only reason for optimism in Lakerland is they could actually be bad enough to get a top-five draft pick, which would enable them to retain one of the picks they'd traded to the Phoenix Suns for Steve Nash (the same Steve Nash who has been declared out for this season because of a lingering back injury). One NBA observer I talked to was ready to proclaim the Lakers the worst team in the Western Conference."
Los Angeles lost to Houston 108-90.
