On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Lakers’ season came to a brutal end in the first round against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Anthony Edwards and Co. dumped LA out of the postseason, in what can only be described as a shocking result. Ahead of the matchup, many believed that LA would advance comfortably, only for the Wolves to wreak havoc on LeBron James and Co. The franchise now has major decisions to make over the summer as they try to improve their team over the offseason. One of the biggest decisions to make will be on LeBron James’ future, with the 40-year-old having a player option for the upcoming 2025-26 season worth around $52 million. However, amid this, there has been a worrying update on the LA superstar.

According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, Lakers superstar LeBron James has suffered a massive injury in Game 5. “LeBron James suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee from his collision with Donte DiVincenzo in Wednesday’s Game 5, a league source told ESPN. The injury entails a 3-5 week recovery timeline.” He wrote on X. This is devastating news for Los Angeles, which was already reeling from Wednesday’s defeat. Early in the fourth quarter, Donte DiVincenzo collided with James, who was in pursuit of a rebound upcourt, before crashing into him. James hit the floor and was in visible pain. Then Rui Hachimura was subbed in for the veteran with around 7 minutes and 23 seconds on the clock.

The 40-year-old forward eventually came back after taking a short 20-second break, but was awful from the field, shooting 1-of-5 down the final few minutes. Despite struggling in Game 5, James has remained LA’s best defensive player down the stretch and in the postseason. He’s been the backbone of this Lakers team and proved just how important he is to the way the Purple & Gold play the game. It also makes you wonder if, had the Lakers found a way to force a Game 6 against the Wolves, LeBron James would not have been available for the clash. This would’ve made things even worse and also snapped his incredible 292-game playoff streak without sitting out a single game. Nonetheless, the streak stays on as the Lakers did not make it past Game 5.

However, the fans are not pleased with this injury news, and some are even tired of LeBron James. But why? Well, a few believe that this knee injury is just an excuse for the Lakers forward’s poor performance in the last game. “The above tweet is a scheduled tweet. Every year that LeBron gets knocked out of the playoffs, some random a-s injury suddenly appears. Also, if he was hurt, why wasn’t it on the injury report?? Hmm.” One fan questioned. He suggested that this is an annual occurrence. He is frustrated with James being injured at the end of every season. However, he isn’t the only one who’s accusing LeBron James of faking the injury, there are a lot of others asking the same question.

The NBA community is tired of LeBron James amid the latest injury report

As the Lakers Nation is feeling the aftereffects of an early first-round exit, LeBron James’ injury update has sparked massive outrage with people accusing the 40-year-old Los Angeles forward of faking the injury. “Faked a injury cause he got 1st rounded.” A user replied, accusing James of faking the MCL tear. Well, it’s huge given he’s been one of the best, if not the best, performers throughout the season. Moreover, it seems harsh to accuse a player like James, who gives more than his hundred percent on the court, especially keeping his age in mind.

Meanwhile, another fan pointed out that LeBron struggled even before the injury. “LOL. There were only 8 minutes left in the game when this happened. Did this affect LeBalco from scoring 0 in the 4th in the previous game as well?” He stated. The fan sarcastically questioned that did the injury also restrained James from scoring in Game 4. Closing out games has been a problem for not just LeBron but the whole team, which was hugely exposed in this series against Minnesota. The Lakers missed several shots, including point-blank layups in the fourth and put up terrible totals in the fourth quarter.

However, not everyone was against LeBron as his fans came to his rescue. “Player 1 snaps an Achilles, shoots free throws, limps back to locker room, season ends: “mamba mentality” Player 2 sprains MCL, plays rest of playoff game at 40, lumps to locker room after game, season ends: “what a flopper, so many excuses, he’s soft” jaded discourse, the expectations speak to his greatness though, we’ll never see it again.” They compared. The fan took Kyrie Irving’s example to correlate with James’ injury. They suggested that when Irving took his free throws, despite being injured, everyone lauded the Dallas star.

Meanwhile, the same people are questioning LeBron for playing through a knee injury. “Makes sense why he was slow at the end of the game,” another fan pointed out. He suggested that it makes sense now, about why James went for 1-of-5 from the field upon his return from the collision with DiVincenzo. Nonetheless, James has plenty of time to recover as he and the Lakers enter the offseason hoping to come back much improved and stronger in the upcoming season.