Part plan, part pipe dream, Lakers star LeBron James and oldest son Bronny became the first father and son to share an NBA court together — a milestone celebrating the elder James’ longevity and the younger James’ resilience.
With four minutes left in the second quarter Tuesday night in the season opener against Minnesota at Crypto.com Arena, father and son checked into the game together to make history.
Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., the first father and son to play on the same team in Major League Baseball, attended the game. Hockey legend Gordie Howe and MLB Hall of Famer Tim Raines also played with their children as teammates on the highest professional levels.
LeBron James set the moment in motion in 2018 when he set the goal of playing with his oldest son as a finish-line moment. Two years later, he said playing with Bronny on the same team would be a “dream.”
This year at the NBA draft, it became reality.
The Lakers used the 55th pick to select Bronny James despite an underwhelming first season at USC where he averaged 4.8 points per game.
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James, though, didn’t debut for the Trojans until Dec. 10 because of a near-death ordeal during a summer workout on USC’s campus. James went into cardiac arrest and lost consciousness on July 25, 2023. USC athletic trainers used life-saving measures, including a defibrillator. He would later undergo surgery to correct a congenital heart defect.
“When he’s able to grace an NBA floor, if that’s tonight or whenever the case may be, it’ll be another one of those moments just to know the adversity that he went through,” LeBron James said Tuesday morning. “I’ve had a couple of family members that have had heart surgeries. Some of them older, some of them younger. And to know how long it kind of takes to get back to yourself, to see him be able to play in a college Division I game the same year that he had heart surgery was, like, a ‘wow’ moment.
“And I knew that at that moment that there really was going to be nothing to stop him from getting to this — to anything that he wants to do. And he wanted to continue to play basketball.”
Before the game Tuesday, Nike released a commercial where James filled Bronny’s car with Fruity Pebbles cereal in a rookie hazing.
The two played four minutes together during one of the Lakers’ six preseason games, a moment that left LeBron James amazed.
“We stood next to each other and I kinda looked at him, and it was just like, ‘Is this the Matrix or something?’” he said. “It just didn’t feel real.”
Afte that game, Bronny James — who struggled for most of the preseason until scoring 17 points Friday night — downplayed it.
“I just got out there and it felt like a normal game with my teammate to be honest,” Bronny James said.
Yet as the moment approached, especially considering the adversity he dealt with in 2023, Bronny James’ NBA debut was more than just another game.
“Yeah,” he said, “it’s gonna be insane.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
