Rookie Injuries for a Rookie Player

By Alexa Vlahakis on November 20, 2014

Everyone dreams of becoming something great or doing something within their lives that changes the world.

For one rookie player, it seems his dreams were cut short earlier this week on Tuesday, October 28th 2014. His name is Julius Randle and he is a rookie player that was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in June of this past year. Randle was the first draft choice for the Lakers and was projected to dominate the role of a power forward on the court. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the 19 year old drove the ball up to the hoop expectantly in the hopes of scoring. Instead disaster struck.

He appeared to have sidestepped on his right foot the wrong way causing his tibia to fracture. According to ESPN, “the rookie is projected to miss the rest of the 2014-2015 season after he underwent surgery on Wednesday to repair the fracture to his tibia.” Later on in the article from ESPN, Baxter Holmes goes on to described how the Lakers coach, Byron Scott felt about the situation quoting, “I did not get a whole lot of sleep just thinking about the young fella… I was holding him after the game listening to him cry.” It is an unfortunate event that this were to happen to such a perspective rookie.

http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/141028randle_injury

It is extremely unfortunate that this were to happen to such a prospect. Injuries to professional athletes happen all the time, yet for this to happen to an athlete during their first season, first game, is just plain bad luck. The most common injuries according to Men’s Fitness are, “plantar fascitis, ankle sprains, ACL strain, quad strain, hamstring pull, hip bursitis, lower back pain, and tennis elbow or elbow pain.” To help protect players from obtaining such injuries there are a few steps and preventative measures that they can take to lower their chances of injury, including time off, conditioning and strengthening muscles, increase flexibility, take breaks, and make sure to play safe. But what professional athlete is actually going to “play safe”? Their entire careers are based off of the number of wins they have and their statistics.

How common are injuries to rookies within their first few years? The Bleacher Report states that, “Rookie seasons are meant for learning… it is a year to experiment with little trial and error to find out what works with each new star player.” Devastating injuries in a player’s first year on the court are typically pretty rare. What has happened to Randle is something that no one could have every predicted. It seems that with this disastrous of an injury, that Julius Randle only saw a total of 14 minutes of playing time in his rookie season. Unfortunately for this rookie player, his season officially ended on that gruesome October day. Many Lakers fans hope to see a speedy recovery for this amazingly talented rookie player and are hopeful for his return next season.

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