NBA superstar LeBron James has so far missed the Los Angeles Lakers’ first 14 games of the 2025-26 season after he suffered sciatica on his right side.
It, however, appears the four-time NBA champion could soon make his season debut as he was upgraded to questionable for the Lakers’ match against the Utah Jazz on November 18, ESPN‘s Shams Charania reported on Monday, per Complex.
While speaking to reporters, James, 40, touched on his experience with sciatica and the people who made fun of his condition.
“If you ain’t never had it, and people are making jokes about it, I pray you never get it,” James told reporters after returning for his first Lakers practice. “It’s not fun.”
James also revealed that it wasn’t his first experience with sciatica, as he dealt with the nerve pain during the 2023 offseason. Asked if he no longer experiences any pain, the future Hall of Famer said, “I won’t take it that far.”
“Like I said, if you ever had it, you just go about it, you wake up one day, and you hope that when you step down out of the bed, you don’t feel it,” James added. “You go to bed at night, and you hope that when you get into bed, you don’t feel it. So, I’ve been doing pretty good with it, as of late. It’s a lot of exercises, and a lot of mobility things, and a lot of things you can do to help it. So, I’m just keeping a positive mindset about it.”
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He said that his final main task is improving his conditioning, as his lungs are currently like those of a “newborn baby,” Complex reported.
The Lakers have so far recorded 10 wins and four losses without James, and they’re in fourth position on the Western Conference table.
Per Mayo Clinic, sciatica “refers to pain that travels along the path of the sciatic nerve.” “The sciatic nerve travels from the buttocks and down each leg,” it adds.
The hospital also states that sciatica usually occurs when a “herniated disk or an overgrowth of bone puts pressure on the lumbar spine nerve roots.” It further explains that it “happens ‘upstream’ from the sciatic nerve,” and “this causes inflammation, pain and often some numbness in the affected leg.”
“Although the pain associated with sciatica can be serious, those cases that are caused by a herniated disk can clear up with treatment in a few weeks to months.”
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