Indiana Basketball star Romeo Langford has finished his first NBA season
The Boston Celtics were eliminated from the 2020 NBA Playoffs Sunday night, officially marking the end of Romeo Langford’s first season in the league. Langford played a total of one minute and 21 seconds in the Eastern Conference finals versus Miami before straining his hip adductor. He wouldn’t return the rest of the series.
Since the injury would keep him out of the playoffs for good, Langford proceeded to get surgery on a torn ligament in his wrist, another injury which he has been playing through. Now, the former top-five recruit is faced with an ambiguous offseason in which he must shake the injury bug and improve as a player.
No one knows what the NBA offseason will look like with Coronavirus restrictions, which doesn’t bode well for Langford as he seeks to improve his body and his game.
Higher expectations are now looming over Langford due to no fault of his own. During the 2019 NBA draft lottery, the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics flipped a coin for the 13th overall pick, which Miami won and used to take Kentucky product Tyler Herro.
Herro has become an integral part of a Heat team which is now playing for an NBA championship. He has played no less than 28 minutes per game in the playoffs, was one assist shy of a triple-double in game one of the Eastern Conference Finals, and scored 37 points in game four of the same series. He’s winning the affection of everyone across the league. His jersey sales were number one in the entire league the day after he scored 37.
Herro is doing all this while Indiana’s crown jewel is sitting on the other sideline bruised and battered, spectating. Even when reasonably healthy, Langford has struggled in his NBA career.
Herro has played 499 minutes in the playoffs. Langford has played 46. Herro has scored 247 points in the playoffs. Langford has scored 10.