Dr. David Chao: Lakers LeBron James Double Talk

The Lakers have been struggling and now LeBron James is injured, but they can't get their story straight. He suffered a groin strain last week and continues to miss time.

On the one hand, his head coach said "there was nothing torn."

On the other, he followed up admitting he strained his left adductor (specific part of the groin). By medical definition, a strain is a tear of the muscle or tendon. There are many degrees of stains from partial to complete.

These two contradictory quotes came from the same press conference. James likely has a low grade partial tear (strain) of his adductor/groin muscle tendon complex and will continue to miss time. Initially, James said he felt "spasm" in his groin and asked out. Clearly the MRI showed more than that.

James has not commented since on his injury but did take time to defend his former teammate Kyrie Irving.

This injury is not as sever as his 2018 groin strain where he missed 18 games but it is the same left groin. He is slated to miss his second game today. Meanwhile, the Lakers are a dreadful 2-10 and lost a winnable game to Sacramento.

James is now 37-years-old, but has been relatively injury free and durable during his two decade NBA career. Only Father Time remains undefeated and age may have finally caught up to LeBron and the Lakers.