The Los Angeles Lakers' season opener against the Houston Rockets met expectations in several ways, but the end result left players and fans feeling ill.
Lakers' rookie Julius Randle, who many consider the future of the franchise, suffered a broken leg in his first NBA game. Prior to that point in the game, Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard had an altercation that resulted in both players being separated after Howard swung his elbows in Bryant’s face. Choice words were exchanged, but none of that mattered by the end of the game.
All thoughts and prayers were with the 19-year-old kid after he had been stretched off in his home debut. As he lay on the hardwood waiting for the stretcher to arrive, one by one, Randle's teammates learned that the kid was seriously hurt. Each player made his way over to the rookie who was struggling and in serious pain. By the time the stretcher finally arrived, Randle was surrounded by a huddle of teammates rubbing his head and telling him to be strong, most notable in the bunch was Bryant.
The fact that the Houston Rockets beat the LA Lakers 108-90 was an afterthought. Had the game been halted at the 6:46 mark in the fourth quarter, when Randle suffered the broken leg, the Lakers would have likely gladly taken the loss and moved on to process the news.
The mood in the arena turned somber the moment Randle went down, and the remaining fans in the stands could not even bring themselves to heckle Howard, the object of hate for most of the evening. Sadness overcame all who had been following the rookie, and news that his mother was present to watch her boy play in his first NBA game only further added to the glum mood.
After the game, the doleful mood carried over into the Lakers' press conferences. Lakers' coach Byron Scott called the injury "heartbreaking."
"I just told him to stay strong," Scott recounted his message to the crying Randle after the game. "Adversity tests the true character of a man. This is some adversity that we’re facing."
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Bryant, who took it upon himself to mentor the youngster, also spoke to the kid and provided him a message of guidance.
"I just told him to keep his spirits up, try not to think about this too much right now," Bryant told reporters after the game. "We're here to pick him up and help him through it."
Bryant added, "You can only control what you can control. That's really tough to process. That's really tough to let that go. But it's the truth. You can't worry about those things. It's a fluke injury. There's nothing you can do about that."
On a stretcher, Randle was transported to a hospital as the Lakers departed for Phoenix, where they will play the Suns on Wednesday night without their rookie sensation.
