The Los Angeles Lakers made a big investment in center Walker Kessler, acquiring him from the Utah Jazz via a sign-and-trade as they believe he is the ideal big man to pair with their star backcourt of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. There are some concerns regarding Kessler and one of those is injury as he played just five games last season before undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
But the big man believes that injury is well behind him now as he says his shoulder feels better than it ever has.
“It’s great,” Kessler said during his first media availability since signing a four-year, $130 million contract with the Lakers. “Feels better than it’s ever felt in my life. It’s been cleared. Feels strong, feels mobile. Yeah, feels great.”
And as it turns out, the injury was actually something Kessler had been dealing with for a while.
“So I actually injured it back in college,” the big man added. “And then I was playing with it for a while. And then last year it kind of got a little worse. And then we decided it would be best timing to get it done then.”
Because of this, Kessler hasn’t played a competitive basketball game since Halloween of last year and being away from the game has made him fall in love with basketball all over and has him chomping at the bit to hit the court again.
“I’m just excited to play again,” Kessler said. “Sitting out a whole year definitely puts a lot of things in perspective. The heart grows fond in absence and I think falling in love with this game again and just realizing I just wanna go win. I just wanna go play to win. And obviously still being able to do the stuff that I kinda showed in the first five games, I guess it was. It’s just gonna be fun to play. I think that’s my best version of myself is just going out there and playing to win.”
There will be a lot of pressure on Kessler with the Lakers, unlike anything he has ever experienced in his career. He has the talent and mindset to succeed under these bright lights and being fully beyond shoulder injury will hopefully allow him to make an immediate impact with the purple and gold.
Luka Doncic pushed hard for Walker Kessler acquisition
Some questioned whether Kessler is worth the money the Lakers gave him, not to mention the draft capital traded to the Jazz to acquire him. But one person who believes in the big man and, reportedly pushed hard for the Lakers to bring him in, was Doncic.
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