What happened to Lebron’s eye?

If you are/were watching Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals you may be wondering what happened to Lebron James’ eye. In the second quarter Draymond Green fouled Lebron and essentially poked him in the eye in the process. Ensuing camera angles showed Lebron’s left eye with a “spot” of blood on it. This is called a subconjunctival hemorrhage, it results from a broken or ruptured blood vessel on the surface of the eye.

In this case the bleed was caused by trauma, but a subconjunctival hemorrhage can also happen spontaneously (especially in people on blood thinners) or as the result of coughing or bearing down (Valsalva manuveur).

No treatment is needed for a subconjunctival hemorrhage as they are self-limited. The blood can be expected to resolve like a bruise, with improvement over the next few days and complete resolution in a week or two. Given the limited nature of Lebron’s eye bleed, I would expect it’ll look a bit better by Game 2 and may be completely resolved by Game 3.