Bronny James is headed toward history with momentum.
The son of one of the best NBA players ever, who is likely to play alongside his famous dad LeBron James in the Los Angeles Lakers’ season opener Tuesday as the first father-son duo to ever play in the same game, Bronny scored a personal-best 17 points in the Lakers’ preseason finale Friday night in San Francisco.
Bronny, 20, the No. 55 pick in the previous draft, started and logged 35 minutes in a lopsided 132-74 loss to the Golden State Warriors in which at least seven of the Lakers’ top players did not dress, including LeBron. The game’s top scorer was another Laker rookie, Quincy Olivari, while most of the Warriors’ regulars played at least some and were led by Jonathan Kuminga’s 17 points. Steph Curry (sprained finger) did not play.
Covering both the preseason and the Lakers’ NBA Summer League slate from a couple months ago, Bronny’s 17 points on 7-of-17 shooting mark his best game on offense as a pro to date. He’d scored just eight points for the entire preseason entering Friday’s action.
“It’s just a great feeling to go out there and not think as much as I do and just play,” Bronny told ESPN after the game. “(I have) just a little bit of confidence going into the season even though I might not be in that rotation, might not be playing, but just going into practice, maybe G League games with that confidence in myself to go out there and play my game. I feel like that’s the biggest part of it.”
Whatever happens Tuesday when the Lakers host the Minnesota Timberwolves to open the season counts, though.
Bronny and LeBron already made history by playing together in the same preseason contest on Oct. 6. No father and son have ever played in the same NBA regular-season game before, let alone on the same team, but the Lakers are widely expected to make that happen against Minnesota on Tuesday.
The Lakers play an early road game in Cleveland, where Bronny lived at two different times during his childhood, on Oct. 30. Bronny signed a four-year, $7.9 million contract, with more money and guarantees than are usually awarded to a player picked that close to the end of the draft.
“I think for him and all our younger players, all the moments are building blocks,” Lakers coach J.J. Redick said, according to ESPN. “Not just the good moments. The bad moments are learning opportunities. I think you have to have a level of patience, a level of optimism. I’m very confident in the level of work that our young guys have had.
“So, again, I think for him, I’m sure it felt good to have 17 points. … I’m not even remotely concerned about that. It’s not even on my radar. Like, we’re trying to help him grow into a great basketball player.”
(Photo: Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)
