- Father-son duo shared court for first time during Lakers’ preseason tilt against the Phoenix Suns
- LeBron scored 19 points during his 16-minute appearance
- Bronny came off the bench to play 13 minutes
In news that is making me feel very old just typing it, LeBron James made history when he stepped onto the court with his son Bronny for the first time, during the Lakers’ preseason game against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday.
While the Lakers came out on the wrong end of a 114-118 against Phoenix, for LeBron, it was a history making moment, as 20-year-old Bronny came off the bench for a 13 minute stint, meaning James snr and jr were the first father-son pairing to ever take the court together in the NBA.
LeBron sunk 19 points during his 16 minute appearance after sitting out the Lakers first preseason game, a 124-107 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Bronny was held scoreless in the 13 minutes he was on the court.
For LeBron, the moment was almost too much, as he gave a two word response to what describe the experience.
“Not real” replied LeBron, via Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
LeBron did then elaborate further, saying, “It was definitely a moment that I will never forget. It’s pretty cool. The moment when we came out of the timeout… and we were still next to each other, I kind of looked at him and it was like… the Matrix or something. It just didn’t feel real.”
When questioned about how he felt about finally sharing an NBA court with his dad, Bronny, who turned 20 on Sunday, replied, “I’m always thinking ‘That’s my dad’ because, literally, that’s my dad,”. The 20-year-old’s performances are highly likely to come under an increased level of scrutiny in the upcoming season, however, with his signing raising a few eyebrows given Bronny only had one season of college basketball under his belt before being drafted by the Lakers.
Several undrafted players had actually put up better stats than Bronny last season, yet James jr agreed to a $7.9m deal across four years with the Lakers, the second largest ever contract for a second round pick, following last year’s 34th overall pick, Colby Jones, inking an $8.8m deal with the Sacramento Kings.
With new, unproven head coach JJ Redick at the helm for the Lakers this season, following the dismissal of the franchise’s entire coaching staff after the 2023/24 campaign, there’s going to be even more attention than usual focused on the Lakers for 24/25.
