LeBron Jamesno stranger to it, is ready to make history again.
The NBA’s all-time leading scorer spoke Tuesday at shootaround about sharing the court with his oldest son, possibly as soon as tonight in the Lakers‘ season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“Just to run out the tunnel knowing he’s going to be in uniform, run out the tunnel with him, see him warm up and be out there with the rest of my teammates,” James said. “This is my 22nd time running out on opening night so I don’t know how many times I’ll get a chance, how many times I have left to run out. I will not take it for granted.”
No father and son have ever played together in the NBA. Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., the first father-son duo in MLB, are expected to attend Tuesday night. Gordie Howe and his sons played together in the NHL, and Tim Raines and his son played together with the Orioles.
For Brony Jamesthe Lakers’ second-round draft pick, the game will also be his professional debut — an accomplishment in itself considering his on-court cardiac arrest in 2023.
“When he gets to grace an NBA floor, if that’s tonight or whenever it happens, it’s going to be another one of those moments just to know the adversity that he’s been through,” LeBron James said. “I had some family members who had heart surgeries. Some of them older, some of them younger. And knowing how long it takes to get back to yourself, seeing him be able to play in a college Division I game the same year he had heart surgery was, like, a “wow” moment. And I knew, at that moment, that there was really nothing that was going to stop him from achieving this – whatever he wanted to do.”
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James said he tried to give his son his own space as a rookie, but that the time they got together to start this season was incredibly special.
“He’s his own man and just watching him continue to grow has been a pleasure to be able to see,” James said of his son. “I missed so many days when I was playing and they were in middle school and middle school and high school. I missed many days. So to be able to kind of recapture some of those days now with us being together and working together, I mean, it’s pretty cool.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
