Bynum Injures Ankle

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, has seen a lot in his basketball lifetime.

The Laker injury situation, however, is somewhat unusual.

“It’s like the incredible shrinking big man phenomenon,” the Laker special assistant coach said Sunday.

Andrew Bynum became the latest to go down, sitting out Sunday’s game against New Orleans because of a sprained right foot and ankle. He was injured while playing in a two-on-two game with other players after Saturday’s practice at the team training facility.

The sprain was diagnosed as mild to moderate, and he might be available to play Thursday against San Antonio. The next Laker game after that is Friday in Seattle.

“We have to survive and keep going,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “Hopefully he won’t miss that many games.”

Injuries have been part of the story for Laker post players throughout the season.

First it was Vlade Divac announcing his retirement before the season because of a bad back. Then Slava Medvedenko sustained a season-ending back injury. More recently, Chris Mihm has missed eight games because of a severely sprained ankle that could keep him out the rest of the regular season.

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Bynum, averaging 1.7 points and 1.8 rebounds in 7.4 minutes, was given a ‘B’ grade so far this season by Abdul-Jabbar, who was hired mainly to work with the rookie.

“Right now, the sky’s the limit,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “If he stays healthy, he could be productive at both ends of the court.

“Having the opportunity to be in this situation, not having it be a thing where he sits on the bench every time, has really enabled him to put two and two together.”

At the same time, Abdul-Jabbar is pushing for Bynum to get more minutes.

“I’m not at all questioning Phil on that, but because he’s my project, I want to see him out there,” Abdul-Jabbar said.