Wednesday night, LeBron James watched his oldest son Bronny score his first NBA points, something he did in Cleveland — an arena in which young Bronny was almost raised during the early years of LeBron’s career.
Would LeBron be up for repeating the process and playing with his younger son, Bryce?
LeBron’s former teammate Tristan Thompson brought up the idea in a recent conversation with Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. With LeBron in Cleveland, Fedor asked him about it.
“Oh s***,” LeBron said while laughing… “Bryce is a senior. I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see. That would be pretty cool. It’s all about my mind and then seeing how my body reacts over these next couple of years.”
Is anyone really going to doubt LeBron can do this if he wants?
There are a few layers to this. First, is Bryce an NBA prospect? Potentially, but he’s not there yet, is what NBC Sports has been told by a scout who has seen Bryce play. The way it was put was that Bryce had a potentially higher ceiling than Bronny, but has a long way to go to get there. Bryce is said to be 6’6″ — taller than Bronny by four inches — and may not be done growing, but he’s also not as athletic as his older brother. Bryce has a good shooting touch and the skill set of a wing player, but those skills are still pretty raw and need work — ESPN has him outside the top 100 players in the class of 2025, and most services have him as a three-star recruit. The younger James reportedly has a scholarship offer from Ohio State, USC and Duquesne.
Could LeBron’s will get Bryce drafted even if he’s not ready? Well, Bronny got drafted, and if he weren’t LeBron’s son, he would still be in college, so it’s not out of the question if Bryce develops his game enough.
Will LeBron want to play for a couple more years? Physically, he looks like he can. LeBron is averaging 21.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists a game while shooting 38.5% on 3-pointers to start this season at age 39. No player works harder to care for his body and mind than LeBron. That said, we are in the first mile of the marathon of this season, then there are the playoffs, and then there is another entire season before Bryce could even be drafted. LeBron, understandably, doesn’t sound like he wants to look that far down the road. It could happen, but two NBA seasons is a lifetime between now and then.
But the seed is planted.
