LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Lakers rookie forward Julius Randle is expected to miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his broken right leg.
The seventh overall pick out of Kentucky broke his leg in the fourth quarter of his NBA debut in Los Angeles’ season-opening loss to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night. Randle was strapped to a wheeled stretcher and taken off the Staples Center court after colliding with two Rockets and landing awkwardly with 6:46 to play.
Before Wednesday’s game at Phoenix, the Lakers announced that Randle’s injury was just as serious as it appeared.
Randle’s surgery was performed by Dr. Donald Wiss at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He is expected to make a full recovery, but the Lakers anticipate he won’t play this season.
“I think we’re all a little shocked by it, disappointed, hurt, all those things are probably going through all our minds,” Lakers coach Byron Scott said before the tip-off against the Suns. “I know I didn’t get a lot of sleep just thinking about the young fella.”
The 19-year-old power forward was the SEC’s top freshman while helping Kentucky to reach the NCAA championship game last season. He was thrilled to be drafted by his favorite childhood team to play alongside Kobe Bryant, one of his idols.
Scott said that after the game he spent time with Randle, “just basically holding him and listening to him cry and trying to console him as much as possible,”
Bryant consoled Randle on the court and after the game in the Lakers’ locker room. Bryant made his own return Tuesday after missing the 2013 playoffs and all but six games last season with two major injuries.
“Even for myself, being a veteran, seeing someone going through something like this is tough,” Bryant said. “But that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to be his teammates and help him through it, take it day by day. … He was progressing just fine. He was improving leaps and bounds.”
After Randle recovered from a broken right foot late in his high-school career in the Dallas area, he appeared to be a budding star while averaging 15.0 points and 10.4 rebounds per game as a freshman at Kentucky. He had 24 games with at least 10 points and 10 rebounds, the most in the nation and the second-most by a freshman in Division I history.