Young to miss about eight weeks with thumb injury
The Lakers guard tears ligament while practicing with Bryant and will have surgery.
Lakers guard Nick Young has a torn ligament in his right thumb and will be out about eightweeks.
Young was injured Thursday while tying to steal the ball from Kobe Bryant at practice.
His thumb swelled up overnight and an MRI exam Friday showed a tear. He will have surgery Monday.
A day earlier, Lakers Coach Byron Scott said Young would have a chance at being the NBA’s sixth manof the year.
And earlier Friday, when the team hoped Young’s injury was only a sprain, Scott wished for the best.
“Maybe I jinxed him, I don’t know,” Scott said. “I’m not going to say anything good about Nick Young for the rest of the year. Maybe that will keep him healthy for us.”
Young apparently smacked his thumb into Bryant’s elbow on the play.
“My answer to him was, ‘ If you moved your feet you wouldn’t hurt your hand.’ And he just started laughing,” Scott said. “Hopefully, it’s something that’s not long term.”
But it is long term. Not a good start for Young. Or the Lakers, who open the regular season Oct. 28 against Houston. Young, 29, averaged a career- high 17.9 points last season while becoming a favorite of Lakers followers.
He signed a four- year, $ 21.5- million contract in July to stay with the team.
Coincidentally, Young’s nickname of “Swaggy P” has been seemingly universal, but new teammate Jeremy Lin said hewasn’t sold yet.
Before the depth of Young’s injury was known, Lin said he would abstain fromhis special name.
“I call him Nick Young,” Lin said. “He’s super cool, but I just find it ridiculous that everyone comes in here and just calls him Swaggy.
“You’ve got to earn it or something. And maybe he has, but I just got here. Maybe I’ll adopt it eventually.”
Scott and Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak each used the Swaggy moniker in recent news conferences.
“I guess there just has to be something that I see — that when I look at him he just glows with ‘ swaggy-ness.’ I’m not there yet,” Lin said.
“No one calls me ‘ Linsanity.’ No one calls Kobe the ‘ Black Mamba.’ That’s why I think it’s ridiculous that people call him Swaggy P.”
Lin was clear he had no ill will toward his teammate. He admitted he would become a Swaggy P convert if it was important to Young.
“He’s hilarious. He’s really cool,” Lin said. “Just out of respect for him, eight years in, if he wants me to call him Swaggy P, I guess I will.”