THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
With four minutes left in the second quarter of the season-opening NBA matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves at LA’s Crypto.com Arena on October 23rd, a buzz rippled through the sellout crowd.
Two players had just risen simultaneously from the end of the Lakers’ bench and strolled towards the scorer’s table to check into the game. That in and of itself was not exceptional, of course. It was who these players were that made it an historic moment, For the first time in the history of the NBA a father and son were taking the court together at the same time.
The players, as you may well have heard, were 39-year-old LeBron James and his 21-year-old protégé LeBron Jr, more commonly known as Bronny.
“That moment, us being at the scorer’s table together and checking in together, it’s a moment I’m never going to forget,” LeBron said. “No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade as I get older or whatever, I will never forget that moment.”
While plenty of NBA players have had fathers who also starred in the league, none have ever had playing careers that overlapped, though it has happened sparingly in other sports. Gordie Howe played alongside his sons Mark and Marty for the NHL’s Hartford Whalers when Gordie was 51, and Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr. – who were in attendance for the James’ history-making moment – suited up for the MLB’s Seattle Mariners in the 1990 and 1991 season.
For James Sr., however, it was the realization of a dream he had talked openly about regularly since his eldest son was a schoolboy. For the younger James, it was the culmination of a sometimes-harrowing journey to follow in his father’s over-sized footsteps, and a moment, some might say, largely willed into existence by the elder James’ formidable fortitude and NBA-royalty status.
LeBron Raymone James Jr. was born in 2004, in Akron Ohio. At the time, his father was 19 years old and the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year playing for his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers.
By the time he was 10, Bronny’s highlights from youth basketball games were all over You Tube and garnering national attention from the likes of ESPN and Sports Illustrated. Throughout his school years he played with traveling all star teams with names like Miami City Ballers and North Coast Blue Chips, while attending prestigious basketball-focused schools first in Ohio, then California, as his father moved from the Miami Heat in 2010, back to Cleveland in 2014, and then on to Los Angeles in 2018 when he signed with the Lakers.
For his freshman year of high school, he transferred to a blue-chip private school in Chatsworth, Los Angeles called Sierra Canyon School, a breeding ground of sorts for young basketball blue-bloods, including the likes of Zaire Wade, the son of LeBron’s Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade. ESPN announced that it would air 15 of the team’s games.
Bronny would average 4.1 points that season and see 15 minutes of playing time per game in the team’s 34-game schedule.
The next season James Jr. tore his meniscus and underwent knee surgery, missing most of the COVID-shortened season. His junior year he averaged 8.8 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.9 steals per game in 29 appearances.
By his senior season, he was ready to step into a leading role at Sierra Canyon, and joined by his younger brother Bryce, he averaged 14.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game while the team finished with a 23–11 record.
He was selected to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game and was named to the US team for the Nike Hoop Summit, performing admirably in both.
Interest in recruiting the younger James for college had started when he was 10, according to his father. By the time he finished his high school career, he was considered one of the top 10 recruits in the country, and he decided to stay close to home and attend the University of Southern California.
On July 24, 2023, Bronny’s journey took a harrowing turn when he suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed during a USC team practice session. He was rushed to the hospital where it was discovered that he had a congenital heart defect. The condition was deemed treatable, and James was cleared to return to the basketball court four months later. A month after that, he made his collegiate debut for the Trojans.
In his lone season at USC, Bronny showed flashes at times, but at the same time struggled to make a significant impact, and was clearly hampered by his health setback. He played in the team’s final 25 games, starting six and averaging 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 19.3 minutes. After the season, he announced that he would enter the NBA draft.
If teams entertained the idea of luring the elder James – who had opted out of his contract in LA after the 2023-34 season – to sign with them by drafting his son, they kept it under wraps. On draft night there were rumors that LeBron had told other teams that Bronny would play overseas if they drafted him.
So when Bronny was still on the board when the Lakers selected in the second round with the 55th overall pick, they followed the script and called his name, inking him to a guaranteed four-year $7.9 million contract. A few weeks later, his father signed a 2-year, $104-million deal to stay with the Lakers.
The elder James’ legacy is firmly established, of course. He is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, a four-time NBA champion, four-time league MVP, and 20-time All Star. He is in his 22nd season – tying Vince Carter for the longest NBA tenure in history – and still playing, at a level unprecedented for his age, averaging 23 points per game over the team’s first 3 games this season. For perspective, Kobe Bryant retired after his 20th season, as did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
So when King James wills to play with his son, it is not altogether surprising that the basketball world bends to that will. It is nothing if not a testament to that will, that longevity, and ultimately his gravitational field within the basketball universe.
Bronny, of course, has had to inhabit and traverse that universe from the time he was born. He has lived under the microscope in that world, with his every move scrutinized, his every success questioned, his every mistake and misstep on and off the court magnified by the glare of the social media hype-machine world we live in today.
Based on his statistical body of work alone, spending a second-round pick on him was a stretch. At times he has shown flashes of his athleticism. He can shoot well, has the potential to be a shut-down perimeter defender, and has good court sense and basketball smarts – the emphasis on ‘potential’.
He also sometimes has a deer in the headlights look, overmatched and undersized. But then again, who wouldn’t, faced with the burden of impossible expectations and literally millions of people hoping he falls flat on his face every time he steps on a court?
It is hard to get a full and nuanced vision of Bronny and the type of player he might be or could be in the glare of the insane instant feedback loop. Some of the absolutely endless criticisms he faces, if you take two minutes to look at the internet ‘comments’ (about all I can take) are frankly brutal, the calls of nepotism and nefariousness often deafening. It is a tough place for anyone to operate, even the offspring of basketball royalty.
For three minutes on opening night in a Hollywood moment, though, father and son shared the court. Bronny took two shots, missing them both, then returned to the end of the bench for the rest of the contest, which the Lakers won 110-103. LeBron finished with 16 points.
Where the story goes from here remains to be seen. Bronny didn’t play in the Lakers’ following two games (both wins) and it was announced that he will spend time with the Lakers’ South Bay G-League affiliate to get some playing time and seasoning.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst had what I would take to be a realistic outlook on the situation. “What the Lakers are doing here, is trying to get the most out of LeBron. This is an investment, not just in history, but engaging and energizing your franchise player at age 39.”
It seems to be working, at least for now. LeBron does seem to be genuinely engaged and energized by having Bronny in the fold, and head coach JJ Redick and the Lakers organization seems willing to lean into it and make it happen.
The approach comes at a fairly low cost for the Lakers in the grand scheme of things. Whether Bronny will eventually become a serviceable NBA player, let alone survive the meatgrinder world of hype and expectation seasoned with massive doses of relentless criticism and scrutiny – a place he has inhabited pretty much his entire life, in fairness – remains to be seen. Somehow though, I can’t help pulling at least a little bit for him in the face of all the negativity and naysayers. Time will tell. It has a way of doing that.
