EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — LeBron James’ 22nd NBA season opener will stand out among the others. He’s had some landmark ones, too — from his first in the league, to his debuts in Miami and Los Angeles, to his return to Cleveland, to his four championship ring nights.
Tuesday is different for one obvious, familial reason.
Bronny.
“Well, ring night is always special — when you win a championship and you come back and you see the banner go up and get your rings it’s always special,” James said Tuesday, as he began to weigh the coming moment for him and his son against his previous 21 NBA openers.
“It’s kind of a s— show, obviously, beforehand, but it is pretty special,” James continued. “Just to run out the tunnel knowing that he’ll be in uniform, run out the tunnel with him, see him warm up, and be out there with the rest of my teammates. This is my 22nd time running out on opening night so I don’t know how many times I’ll have an opportunity, how many times I’ve got left to run out. I won’t take it for granted.”
James’ teams almost always play on the first night of the NBA season, regardless of how they finished the year before, because of his long-held unofficial role as face of the league. But Tuesday when the Lakers host the Minnesota Timberwolves on TNT, it will be the first time a father and son suit up for the same regular-season NBA game.
And if, as expected, the Lakers put Bronny into the game while his dad is on the court, it will be the first time in NBA history a father and son appear in a game that counts (they briefly appeared together in a preseason game Oct. 6 — Bronny’s 20th birthday).
The Jameses would join a group that includes Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr., who will be in attendance Tuesday, hockey’s Howes — father Gordie and sons Mark and Marty with the 1979-80 Hartford Whalers — and Tim Raines Sr. and Tim Raines Jr., who appeared together for the Baltimore Orioles in 2001.
“Whenever it happens, it will happen. If it’s tonight or if it’s down the line,” James said. “But it’s been a treat and just in preseason, the practices, just every day. The plane rides, the bus rides of being with him and showing him the ropes, along with his teammates and coaches. Just bringing him up to speed of what this professional life is all about and how to prepare every day as a professional. So, that’s super-duper cool.”
The Lakers drafted Bronny with the 55th pick in June, and awarded him a four-year, $7.9 million guaranteed contract after just one college season at USC in which Bronny mostly struggled as a role player.
Say what you will about his father’s impact on Bronny getting to the NBA this quickly, but at this time a year ago Bronny wasn’t playing at all. He was recovering from heart surgery following an episode of cardiac arrest while working out with the Trojans in the summer of 2023.
“We had a moment when he was drafted, we all got an opportunity to be together as a family in New York when he was drafted by the Lakers, we had a moment there because we were just thinking about not too long ago that the scare happened,” James said. “And 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.
“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,” James continued. “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.
James said the first thing Bronny asked doctors after surgery was when he could get back on the floor.
“Not like, ‘How is gonna take for my heart to heal?’ Or not, ‘How long was I in surgery?’ None of those,” James said. “He asked, ‘When can I play again?’”
When the G League season begins next month, the Lakers are expected to shuttle Bronny back and forth between the NBA and their affiliate at South Bay. When Bronny isn’t in the G League, he is not expected to hold a major role on the Lakers, at least initially.
As a father, it would be impossible for James not to keep an eye on his son’s development while also trying to win for the Lakers. James said he “won’t be concerned about his growth because I know how hard he works and I know what he’s cut from.
“It’s just about him being happy in whatever he wants to do and how he wants to perform,” James said. “But more importantly, it’s how he continues to be off the floor. And how he continues to interact as a model citizen and a young man and a person who has a lot of people that look up to him — in his age, his demographic and things of that nature. So, the basketball stuff will take care of itself. I’m not concerned about that.”
It was mentioned to James on Tuesday that the Griffeys once homered in the same MLB game in consecutive at-bats.
What would be the basketball equivalent?
Said James: “Probably two lobs — I catch a lob and then Bronny catches a lob.”
(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
