Instead of punching Father Time once again with his superior athleticism, strength, and decision making, LeBron James has spent the beginning of his 23 NBA season sitting on an elevated chair along the bench.

Practically, James has sat there for added comfort while dealing with sciatica on his right side. But the striking image also symbolizes uncertainty over when and if the Los Angeles Lakers star will exert his on-court dominance again.

“It is uncharted territory,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said earlier this season. “I don’t think there’s a proven way to handle someone who has this much mileage and this many minutes. He’s been asked to do so many things on the court.”

After logging 30,583 minutes through 22 regular seasons and 12,062 minutes through 18 playoff stints, James missed a season opener for the first time in his NBA career. The Lakers (3-2) enter Friday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies (3-2) with some clarity on when James will return. Redick told reporters on Wednesday that they project James can return in the second or third week of November. Nothing definitive, though.

EssentiallySports talked to a handful of outside medical experts about James’ latest injury, the details about sciatica, and how they expect things will play out with James’ return and eventual retirement. None of these experts has worked with James or the Lakers directly. But they offered their outside medical expertise and candor about numerous issues related to James’ injury.

The panel included:

Dr. Alan Beyer, executive director of Hoag Orthopedic Institute.

Dr. Nitin Bhatia, chair of orthopedics, at UCI Health at UC Irvine.

Dr. Igor Prus, sports medicine physician at Endeavor Health

Dr. Jay Shah, medical director of sports medicine, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center.

Editor’s note: The following one-on-one interviews have been edited and condensed. Their interviews with EssentiallySports were also conducted separately.

What was your reaction when you heard the news about LeBron’s sciatica injury?

Beyer: “I assume he doesn’t have a significant disk issue like Matthew Stafford had. You know how secretive people can be, such as Kawhi Leonard, the biggest secret keeper of all. But LeBron’s going to have to shut down the golf. If he’s playing golf in spite of still having sciatica problems, he’s not going to get better enough to play NBA basketball. I’m not saying it caused it, but I’m saying it was probably related. He needs to shut down the golf and concentrate on getting back to basketball.”

Bhatia: “As a Lakers fan, I was sad. But as a spine surgeon, I was not surprised. That’s nothing against LeBron. He’s in great physical shape and keeps himself healthy. But sciatica is very common. People make the mistake that these issues only happen to grandma and grandpa when they’re in their 70s or 80s. But one of the most common times to get sciatica is in your 30s and early 40s. Whether or not you’re a high-level athlete, this affects about a million people a year in America. Probably about 40% of our population gets sciatica in their life. That’s how common it is.”

Prus: “Sciatica can cause severe pain and discomfort, and make it hard to do even daily things. It’s not even about just playing a physical game that is very demanding. I feel sorry that LeBron has experienced these symptoms and wish him well with his recovery. It is unfortunate because if it’s something that causes a bit of discomfort, that can keep you out of the game for weeks.”

Shah: “I’m disappointed with the situation. You definitely don’t want to see someone who’s a prominent figure in the league to be on the injured list at the start of the season. There’s a chance he can return to the court with the near absence of pain. But there’s also a chance this can linger. There are chances this could have a flareup every now and then. Nerves are tricky. They don’t really have a straight line from A to B. Nerves can play tricks on you. But you hope for the best and hope he can recover and get back on the court.”

How would you explain what sciatica is to a general audience?

Beyer: “Sciatica is a back problem. That is the compression of a nerve either at the lumbar spine or further down when it passes through the glutes and the hamstrings.”

Bhatia: “It’s pain in a nerve shooting down the leg due to that nerve being pinched by something in your lower back. The most common cause is a nerve being pinched by a disc. The disc is the shock absorber between the bones and the lower back. We have the discs all the way from our neck to our midback to our lower back. They have a very firm outside and are jelly-like inside. Sometimes the jelly can pop out and hit a nerve. If it does, sometimes that nerve can get very irritated and cause severe pain on the butt and down the leg. It can cause weakness and numbness. But the most common thing is pain. It really, really hurts.”

Prus: “Sciatica stems from the sciatic nerve. That’s the biggest nerve in the body and in the back of the glute in the butt area. It typically is an umbrella term for nerve irritation. The most common cause would be a herniation of the disks between the spine bones. The disks are shock absorbers and give us an ability to have flexibility. But if they’re overloaded, they can be pushed outside. If that pushes toward the nerve, that can create irritation.”

Shah: “Sciatica is an umbrella term and can mean a few different things. But overall, there is a nerve impingement. Now, the question that we don’t know among the general audience is where exactly is the sciatica stemming from. Is it from his lower back or the glutes area? But when people say they have sciatica, they’re referring to that nerve that exits from the spinal cord, and that it has been irritated or inflamed.

It can involve any problems with the spine. There can be a disk that is bulging and pinching on the nerve. There can be arthritic changes that are irritating the nerve. There can be muscles that are irritating the nerve. The nerve exits from the spinal cord and travels from the lower back to the gluteal region. Then it continues down the leg. So most patients that have sciatica could have lower back pain or have numbness, tingling, or shooting pain that travels down the back portion of the leg. It’s definitely something that is painful and can restrict your ability to perform on the court.”

What’s the usual timetable to recover from sciatica?

Beyer: “Typically, it’s three to four weeks. But LeBron has more mileage on his odometer than most players. So it’s going to take him a little longer to recover from these sprains and strains that other guys bounce back from in two or three weeks. So I think it could be longer. Typically, rehab entails stretching and core strengthening. It’s not like a disc problem. Then you’d be getting an epidural injection. It sounds like the source of his is lower down. It’s not up by the spine. It’s by the glute and hamstring area. So there is nothing you can inject. You just have to do physical therapy, anti-inflammatory, and electronic stim work and let nature heal.”

Bhatia: “The good news is that it gets better on its own 90% of the time. The body can go in there and eat away at the disc. But the nerves are pretty tough and resilient. So they get used to the pressure. Then the disc dries up and shrinks a little bit. Over the span of six to 12 weeks, most people get better. It usually takes three to four months to get to 100%.

Rest and stopping irritating activities is No. 1 to give the body a chance to heal. You can take pain medication to take the edge off. If things aren’t getting better or if it’s still painful, often you take inflammatory medication and taper it off. It doesn’t heal the problem, but it can make the pain a lot better. Sometimes you can also have an epidural injection to help calm the nerve down. If you can get the nerve calmed down, that is the key to feel a lot better. If it doesn’t fully help, then you can have a microsurgery and clean that area off. That is very, very successful.”

Prus: “It all depends on the degree of the irritation. It depends on what causes the irritation. It could be a herniated disk in the spine that pushes a lot of the nerves, or the spinal canal can be narrow itself. If there is quite a bit of a compression, there could be a long recovery. If it’s just a little irritation, it could be a week or two with some treatment. You need to rest, but still move around so you don’t get stiff. You also take anti-inflammatory treatments. But if the compression is moderate, it could be somewhere between four to six weeks. If the compression is severe, you may need an injection next to the nerve that is irritated. That will lead to faster recovery.”

Shah: “Nerves are tricky. Nerves can take a path of their own. It can be a couple of weeks or a couple of months. It depends on how LeBron feels with the treatment he’s receiving. The main foundation of treatment is physical therapy. That’s rehabbing whatever area is bothering him – his lower back, gluteal region, or everything in general. That’s finding modalities to relieve the nerve irritation. If it’s the back, you can be subject to injections. But in terms of timeline, you’re usually looking at a couple of weeks or a couple of months.”

LeBron has been sitting on an elevated chair during games. What does that do?

Beyer: “He doesn’t have to flex as much. The worst position for the sciatic nerve is inflection at the hip and inflection at the knee. That is what a chair puts you in. With a tall chair, you’re not flexing your hip or your knee as much. So that relaxes the sciatic nerve somewhat.”

Bhatia: “The nice thing about that is that you don’t have to bend as far down and put as much pressure on your back. Sitting is always one of the hardest things on the back.”

Prus: “When a person has sciatica, they tend to stand up and have a hard time sitting. If you sit on a high chair, your legs are a little bit straighter and not as bent. So the nerve is not getting pulled. The nerve is in the back of the leg. So if you sit on a regular seat, the nerve is stretched. That causes quite a bit of pain. So it is easier to sit on a high chair or to stand.”

Shah: “It can just be for comfort purposes. When certain people have sciatic nerve issues, it can affect your ability to sit. Oftentimes when I see people with sciatica when they’re in a patient room, they’re often sitting sideways or in a diagonal position. They’re often shifty after a couple of minutes and ask if they can stand. They’re often uncomfortable just being in one position. So that high chair can provide him some comfort and relief.”

LeBron is believed to have had this injury during an offseason workout. But some Lakers fans have wondered if there’s any connection to his golfing during the offseason. Generally, how much can golfing increase odds to get sciatica?

Beyer: “It’s an injury that affects a lot of golfers. Guess who has taken up golf? With full disclosure, I never examined LeBron, and I don’t have a history with him and have never seen his imaging studies. But here is a guy for 23 years in the NBA, avoided major back problems. And now all of a sudden, he has taken up golf, and suddenly he’s got sciatica. That has stopped him from participating in full preseason training and missing the first few weeks of the regular season. What a coincidence!”

Bhatia: “We can ask Tiger Woods for his input on that (laughs). But yes, that can happen with golf. These things can happen when you’re not playing basketball or golfing. You can be a couch potato and still have disc herniations and sciatica. But golfing is very hard on the lower back and has very high torque. That is something that can certainly irritate nerves. For the athletes that we take care of, when they’re back toward playing another sport and recover with or without surgery, we tell them that even if they feel 100%, that we don’t let them golf for another three months. My guess is once he gets back, he’ll hold back from golfing until the offseason. You don’t want to irritate that nerve again.”

Prus: “Playing golf puts a lot of rotational stress on the spine. Spines don’t like rotations because that’s too much overload. Golf requires you to have this explosive movement and quick rotation. So it definitely can have something to do with it. If you play golf and put a little too much torque, you can get injured, especially if the discs are not as strong anymore. So golf can definitely play a role in that.”

Shah: “Sure. But generally, a person’s changes in level of activity can cause that nerve irritation. So when someone is golfing, there is a twisting maneuver when you’re hitting a golf ball. Could that have sparked that nerve to be irritated? Sure. That’s the whole reason why people are theorizing it. But it’s hard to know because we don’t have a timeline and what caused it. With sciatica, it’s interesting for someone with the level of activity that he does.

At this stage of his career, it’s likely something that wasn’t normal structurally, but it became abnormal all of a sudden. When we talk about ACL tears or meniscus tears for young athletes, that tissue is normal, and then they did something to make the tissue abnormal. With sciatica, it actually could be the opposite, where he’s had issues in the back that have been ‘silent’ and any maneuver could cause it. He could’ve been just picking up boxes. It can be anything. It can be golfing. It can be his summer workouts. It can be his weightlifting. Anything can set it off. So it’s hard to just isolate it to one activity. Everything can contribute to it, but it’s hard to isolate just one action.”

Generally, once a player heals enough to get clearance to play, to what extent does this injury usually still have to be managed?

Beyer: “He’ll have to stay on that program with core strengthening and a lot more stretching for the whole season. It’s not just, ‘It’s gone now, and now I can go back and do what I did before.’ And I probably wouldn’t schedule too many tee times these next couple of months, either. Golf is hard on the back. Look at Will Zalatoris. He’s 29 years old and has already had two back surgeries. Tiger Woods has had several. You can’t undo physics.”

Bhatia: “Once he’s fully healed, he’ll probably be fine and back to 100%. If you return too early, though, there is a chance you aggravate it. So you really want to be careful and make sure you’re ready to go. The other thing is whether you’re in high-level sports or a weekend warrior, there is no 50% speed. You’re going at 100%. So if you still have pain or feel weak, or subconsciously your body is restricting you to jump as high as you can, then you’re not as functional and can reinjure yourself.

Often, what we’ll do with our athletes is once they’re feeling better, they work gently through physical therapy and go through the motions in non-game situations to see how they feel. They do everything without the stress of playing 100% and then slowly get them back in with limited time.”

Prus: “If he’s cleared and is 100%, there is not much to do and manage. He can still play. But some people might not feel 100%. They might feel 90% and they feel like they can play, but there is still some discomfort. Then they will have to keep in touch with the medical professionals on what they can do to avoid more irritation.”

Shah: “To rush him back while he’s in pain could potentially cause setbacks to happen throughout the season. Instead, it’s about trying to take advantage of the early stage of the season and really get him to follow a rehab to tune up certain areas of his body and limit potential setbacks later on in the season.

It’s possible to get that pain to a near-zero and to an absent level. But maybe it’s something that he can tolerate. Half the battle is pain tolerance. If he can still run up and down the court and jump, then he can return back and play. Obviously, that timeline gets aggressive as you’re heading into the second half of the season or the playoffs versus the preseason and beginning of the season. You tend to have more time to optimize recovery.

Sciatica is typically something that you manage. Now it can get managed to a point where he doesn’t experience pain. Or it can get managed where he has some pain on some days and doesn’t have any pain on other days.”

What do you expect LeBron’s workload will be like once he returns?

Beyer: “They’re going to have to manage his time. They talked about load management last season. But I didn’t see them doing much of it. He’s going to really have to have his minutes cut back if they expect him to get through an 82-game season. I think it should be 20 or 24. Put him in the first quarter, take him out halfway through the second quarter, and let him have that and halftime off. Put him back in for halfway through the third quarter and half of the fourth quarter. That is a big jump from last season, but he’s no spring chicken.”

Bhatia: “I think the initial return will be limited time and limited play. He consciously and subconsciously will limit himself, and his body will limit him. His doctors and trainers will likely tell him to take it easy initially. But there can be hope that by the end of the season, he’s back to 100% and that he’ll play at a high level like everyone knows he can.”

Prus: “It probably depends on the level of nerve irritation. If it’s mild, he might recover completely and play and be very good like he did last season. If it’s severe, it might take a while to recover. But he still might come back and be very good. It’s hard for me to tell you for sure what his outcome is going to be or how his performances will be. He still has a good chance to recover and do very well.”

Shah: “With the timeline that he’s at in his career, he’s probably not going to play aggressively in back-to-back games. He might play the first game and rest the second game, or vice versa. They might have to load manage him and actively monitor his minutes. The way he would play at 20 years old, he may not be able to with that type of fervor compared to earlier. They definitely have to play it smart. LeBron is pretty smart. We know a lot more with sports performance recovery and sports medicine.”

Given his latest injury and where LeBron is at his career, what do you expect how his 23 season will be compared to other seasons? Last season, LeBron averaged 24.4 points, 8.2 assists, and 7.8 rebounds in 34.9 minutes a game.

Beyer: “His output will cut down proportionally to what his minutes are. If you’re not on the court, you can’t be pulling down rebounds or scoring points. This is the third season in a row where he’s suddenly dealing with one of those nagging issues. LeBron never experienced this during the bulk of his career. He was very injury-free for the first bulk of his career. Now it’s catching up to him. His performance is going to have to decline a little bit. It’s harder to jump when you have a sciatic issue. It’s hard. He’s the record-holder at 23 years.”

Bhatia: “My guess is for the first half of the season, he will average a third to half of those numbers. He’s missing a month-and-a-half of the season at least. So once he gets back, he’ll start slow. Then the second half of the season, he’ll probably be close to his previous numbers before the end of the season.”

Prus: “If he has full recovery, then he should be able to have the same numbers. If this injury was unrelated to basketball, then I think he for sure will do very well. But if this injury has something to do with his basketball work, it might be harder because that means certain things that he does can make his body irritated again. That could put pressure in your mind to avoid those things. Even some mild or moderate pain can affect your play.”

Shah: “I wouldn’t say that he’ll have a major performance dip. Minutes will probably be actively monitored. But I don’t think it’ll be different than how they’ve managed his minutes in the last couple of years. He’s 40 and will be 41 [on Dec. 30]. He’s not 20. But he’s been in this phase of actively monitoring minutes for a long period of time. So I don’t think it’ll be a major shift in how they approach that. Any veteran of his age will rest one or two of the back-to-backs, most likely. Once he returns, he may not be playing a full 35 minutes in the very first game. But he will get there eventually once he gets acclimated to the speed of the game.”

Based on your outside medical expertise, what’s your expectation on whether this will be LeBron’s last season?

Beyer: “I thought that last year would be his last season. What is he doing now? At some point, how much will you sacrifice your body? He’s only 40 years old. You don’t want to sacrifice the rest of your life just to chase one more ring. It’ll be this year or next. He’s done great work. He can concentrate on his foundation and use his platform to do good for others. Let the ego take a backseat now.”

Bhatia: “That’s hard to say. Even independent of this, this could be his last season, which is sad to say. But boy, has he had a great career. But something like this, especially if it lingers a bit and doesn’t let him play at a high level, he’s getting to the end of an amazing career, anyways. But if this doesn’t fully get better or this limits him, it wouldn’t surprise me because of his drive and excellence that he decides this is a sign from up above to hang it up.”

Prus: “I hope this injury does not put him into retirement. There are ways to manage it, and he can treat this. This is not something that puts people out of being able to play. I obviously don’t know the details of his symptoms, his medication, and what his imaging shows. But there are definitely ways to manage this and get him back to play more seasons. If there is something going on with the imaging, then it would be a different prediction. But it all depends on how he feels. If he recovers 100%, he can decide himself on when he’ll retire.”

Shah: “I feel like I’ve been saying this is his last year for a couple of years now. But then he puts together another impressive stat line. I don’t think this is his last year. Back pain, nerves, and sciatica can be tricky. But it would take a lot for LeBron to retire based on just this injury. If it lingers or goes off and on, I can see it. But I don’t think at this stage that I would feel comfortable saying that because of this injury, that this will be his last year. It’s too early to tell. With the absence of pain with his return, would this be his last year? I don’t see any reason why it would be his last year. I would imagine him announcing it in advance and have more of a celebratory tour in all the arenas that he’s playing in that one year. I would think LeBron and the NBA would want to do that for a whole host of reasons.”

From your medical lens, where do you rank both LeBron’s longevity and playing at an All-Star level nearly every season?

Beyer: “I don’t think anyone will ever match it. What’s going on in college basketball with the NIL and all the transferring, LeBron didn’t go through any of that because he didn’t go to college. I don’t think 23 years is ever going to be matched. I also don’t think the motivation is there anymore with the current crop of young players. They’re not motivated by the same things. They’re getting so much money up front. So they’re not motivated to work that hard anymore. I don’t think that matches what the current cadre of athletes are doing.”

Bhatia: “It’s truly incredible. I’m not going to get into the argument for ‘best player of all time.’ But for longevity and what he’s done at such a high level every year? A quote-unquote ‘bad year for LeBron’ would almost be the best year for any other NBA player in their career. To do it year after year after year is truly incredible in any field.”

Prus: “I think that’s exceptional. There are superhumans, and he’s one of those. He’s a very good athlete. He has a very strong body. To achieve what he achieved, you have to work hard and you have to work right. Then you have to have a good physical body and good genes and know how to preserve that.”

Shah: “It’s unheard of. LeBron James is no stranger in investing in his body, which is why he’s still been playing at such a high level and has been a franchise player. When people talk about greatest of all time, one of the main arguments for LeBron is simply because of longevity. How many players played as long as he did at the caliber that he played at? It’s unheard of. It’s one of those ‘Ironman’ records. You just don’t see somebody that can play at that high level for so long. It’s a testament to his work ethic and attention to detail, both during the season and in the offseason. It’s a testament to the amount of investment he makes on himself to recover better and play better. It’s definitely something to admire.”

Mark Medina is an NBA insider for Essentially Sports. Follow him on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.