EXPLAINER
NBA’s main all-time scorer is lacking the beginning of the brand new season resulting from sciatica. When will the Lakers star return to the court docket?
Revealed On 22 Oct 2025
Basketball celebrity LeBron James has missed the beginning of an NBA season for the primary time in his storied 23-year skilled profession.
The explanation for his absence is a medical situation that impacts athletes and non-athletes alike known as sciatica.
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The situation has a variety of outcomes – from a number of weeks’ relaxation and conservative therapy to everlasting harm that may result in life-altering bodily challenges – main basketball followers and pundits to invest on what LeBron’s final prognosis will probably be.
Right here is all to find out about sciatica and after we can probably anticipate the 40-year-old Los Angeles Lakers ahead to be again on the court docket:
Why is LeBron James lacking the NBA season begin?
The Lakers introduced on October 9 that James was coping with a sciatica-related challenge on his proper facet and added that he would miss the primary few weeks of the 2025-26 NBA common season.
The staff famous that James can be re-evaluated in three to 4 weeks.
What’s sciatica?
Sciatica happens because of compression or irritation to the sciatic nerve, the longest and thickest nerve within the human physique.
The sciatic nerve begins within the decrease again and travels down by means of the buttocks, the again of every leg and terminates within the foot.
This nerve situation is primarily brought on by impairments – typically benign, typically extreme – within the decrease again, akin to herniated or prolapsed disks within the decrease backbone.
James may also be affected by a lesser-known medical situation known as piriformis syndrome, which happens when the piriformis muscle within the buttock compresses or irritates the close by sciatic nerve, inflicting ache that radiates down the leg. Piriformis syndrome just isn’t the identical as sciatica, however it’s a situation that may trigger sciatica-like signs and is much extra frequent in athletes.
When will James return to the court docket?
On the time of the harm announcement, the Lakers acknowledged that James can be re-evaluated by medical workers in early November.
Primarily based on that re-evaluation timeline, the All-Star ahead will miss a minimal of six to 10 NBA video games – but it surely may develop into much more if the sciatica requires additional medical therapy, whether or not it’s conservative remedy or surgical procedure.
Even when the sciatica has abated by November, James would nonetheless want a number of weeks to ramp up his coaching protocol earlier than he is able to play an NBA match, probably delaying his on-court return till December and even 2026.
What’s the long-term influence on James’s NBA profession?
James would possibly get well in a number of weeks and by no means endure a sciatica recurrence.
It’s not unusual for sufferers to expertise recurrent situations of sciatica all through their lives, which could result in surgical intervention sooner or later if the nerve compression turns into extreme.
Within the worst-case state of affairs, James may not get well from sciatica and will endure ongoing debilitating nerve ache in his decrease again, buttocks and leg that necessitates surgical intervention, probably ending his basketball profession.
Traditionally, a number of NBA gamers have undertaken sciatic nerve launch surgical procedures, and a few have sufficiently recovered and returned to the court docket – though none of them had been as previous as James, who turns 41 in December.
