Alex Caruso says NBA suspension is ‘frustrating’ because of how much it meant to the Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t played a playoff game since April 28, 2013. This was supposed to be the season that streak finally came to an end.

With the league year still suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Lakers won’t be able to play in the postseason next month. Even though they understand the severity of the situation at hand and their relative comfort as healthy individuals with stable incomes, there is still some frustration that comes with missing out on that opportunity.

In an interview with Mike Trudell of Lakers.com, Alex Caruso detailed how he feels about the stoppage of the NBA season, particularly considering how well the Lakers had been playing before the suspension:

Probably the most frustrating part is how much this season meant to us as players, coaches, organization and fans. With everything that’s gone on the past several years, and obviously the Kobe situation, everybody was really looking forward to finishing out the season and getting to the playoffs. Now that it’s prolonged, it’s just frustrating. All of us on the team, our favorite thing to do is play basketball, and for that to be momentarily taken away puts things into perspective. It’s kind of an enlightening moment, just to not take it for granted. Whether you’re in your first full season like me, or 17th for LeBron.

Caruso has been passing the time by watching his favorite TV show, “The Office,” and playing video games. But it sounds like he is itching to get back to basketball, provided the league can insure safety for everyone involved before resuming operations. His objective is still for the Lakers to win a title this season.

As soon as they can get it back started they’re going to try to, and obviously safety is the highest priority. You gotta make sure everybody is healthy. But obviously, as soon as we can get basketball back, that’s what we want to do. For us as the Lakers and fans of us, they want to see us reach the ultimate goal, which is what we’ve talked about since the beginning of the year. We’re still in that mindset, it’s just on a hiatus until we get back to playing. It depends on how long we’re out of the practice facility. I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to get back to the practice facility once everybody is cleared, but we’ll see what happens. Things are changing on the hour, every hour.

If you, like me, need some basketball — and some Alex Caruso — to fill your life in this moment, might I recommend Caruso’s one shining moment while at Texas A&M.

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