They were father and son throughout Bronny James’ life.
Now they are teammates in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lakers selected Bronny James in June’s NBA draft to play with his father LeBron. The pair made their public debut as teammates on Monday at the Lakers’ media day.
For LeBron, the moment marked the culmination of a dream he’s talked about since Bronny emerged as a prospect on the prep scene. He was all smiles on the set of Spectrum Sportsnet Monday when Bronny joined him for a joint interview with both wearing their Lakers gear.
LeBron sported his traditional number 23. Bronny wore number 9 with “James Jr.” across the back.
‘Let’s get the tissue out’
“Just pure joy, man,” LeBron said when asked about his emotions. “I have no words. I can talk about myself. You ask me questions about me. When it comes to him, I just lack words.
“Just very proud. Very proud of him for getting to this point. He’s a man. He’s ready to go. Whatever questions you’ve got for him, go ahead and let him have it.”
LeBron has already said that he doesn’t want Bronny to call him “daddy” when they’re on the court. So what’s the plan with training camp scheduled to start on Tuesday?
“I haven’t gotten there yet,” said Bronny. “Probably going to be, like, Bron. Bron would be the easiest.”
The father-son duo started off with some friendly trash talk that took from a pickup game played last week. LeBron continued the banter, giving Bronny a hard time while Bronny gave an interview to ESPN.
Both are clearly relishing the moment. For the parent of an athlete, witnessing a child reach the highest level of their sport is a dream come true. Doing that as his teammate is a whole other level.
Now that LeBron and Bronny are officially teammates, the next step is to get down to the business of actual basketball. They will do so under a rookie head coach in JJ Redick, who will face immediate pressure to return the Lakers to championship contention after they lost in five games to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs last season.
Navigating the LeBron-Bronny dynamic will be one more challenge for Redick to figure out in his first season as a head coach at any level. Bronny was a backup as a freshman at USC last season and is not projected to play significant NBA minutes anytime soon.
The moment LeBron and Bronny take the court together for the first time will be an important moment in the NBA. Redick declined to commit to a plan at that point during a news conference last week.
“We don’t have anything planned, per se, in terms of a commitment to do it that way,” Redick said, via the Associated Press. “We’ve obviously talked about it as a staff, and we’ve gone into some detail about what that might look like, but we haven’t committed to anything.
“And obviously there’s a discussion to be had after we’re all together, with Bronny and LeBron as well. They should also be part of that discussion.”
He also said he doesn’t expect navigating the relationship to present a unique challenge to him as a coach.
“I don’t look at it as a challenge that’s unique from any other challenge of coaching a player or coaching a relationship,” Redick said.
We’ll see about that.
The Lakers make their preseason debut on October 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. They open their regular season at home against that same Timberwolves team on October 22nd as they begin the season with a three-game homestand. Will Bronny make his NBA debut alongside his father before the Lakers hit the road?
