EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — LeBron James gets to end every practice these days by shooting hoops with his son.
When the Los Angeles Lakers cool down with small-group shooting sessions after workouts at their training complex, the top scorer in NBA history and 20-year-old Bronny James take turns putting up dozens of jumpers alongside third-year guard Max Christie.
Getting all this family time at work is still surreal to LeBron, even though he pretty much willed it into reality.
“For a father, it means everything,” LeBron said.
Less than three years after James declared his desire to cap his decorated career by playing alongside Bronny, they’ve already teamed up in the preseason. They’ll soon become the first father and son to play in a real NBA game at the same time, let alone on the same team.
“It’s a special feeling, a different feeling, to work with him,” said LeBron, who turns 40 in December. “When you go to work every day, you want to try to help each other. If it’s a bad day for him, you pick him up. … There’s things we can do that doesn’t even need words. We can just look at each other and know.”
The sports world has been looking at them both this fall as the Lakers embark on a remarkable experiment — albeit one that could present unique challenges for the James family’s teammates and the Lakers’ rookie head coach, JJ Redick.
Bronny has already acknowledged and lamented the social media stigma of favoritism and nepotism hovering over the start of his NBA career. The Lakers have also been criticized for using a draft pick to guarantee this father-son pairing, with detractors questioning the inclusion of Bronny and his still-raw skills in any contender’s plans from a competitive standpoint.
“It won’t be an easy situation necessarily to navigate,” said Stan Van Gundy, the longtime NBA coach and current commentator. “There will be a lot of external noise about Bronny. If he doesn’t play, people are going to want him to play with LeBron. If he’s playing, people are going to say he doesn’t deserve to be playing. … But I think the focus should be that this is something to be celebrated. This is a phenomenal thing that we’re not going to see much.”
Indeed, only a handful of great athletes have ever played on the same professional sports team as their sons — and Ken Griffey Sr., Tim Raines and Gordie Howe were not still at the peak of their formidable skills when they teamed up with their progeny.
LeBron is still one of the NBA’s best players, and the Lakers aspire to championship contention for a roster built around him and Anthony Davis.
In other words, this is no time for a stunt.
But Bronny’s first few months on the roster have generated overwhelming positivity around the Lakers, both from the front office that orchestrated it and from the players suiting up alongside the James duo. No matter how much or how little the James family ends up playing together this season, the Lakers clearly don’t regret making this bit of basketball history.
Davis has known Bronny well since Davis joined the Lakers in 2019, watching his maturation from a shy teen into a young man.
“It’s awesome,” Davis said. “It’s historic. It’s powerful. Bronny’s locker is across from mine, so every time I walk in and see it, it’s still surreal for me that he’s on the same team as his dad. I can’t wait until they step on the floor and officially make history, but it’s been super-dope to watch so far.”
While LeBron has been an international star for more than two decades, Bronny is quieter and more circumspect than his famous father. Friends and family have sometimes joked that his passion for video games is right up there with his passion for basketball, which only became the primary focus of his life a few years ago.
LeBron set these circumstances into motion with his declaration that he would end his career playing with his son, although he later amended his statement, saying he only hoped to play in the league at the same time as Bronny. That was the last thing on his mind one summer ago, when Bronny survived cardiac arrest during a workout at USC.
Although Bronny said it wasn’t necessarily his own dream to play alongside his father, he still made it happen by entering the draft after just one truncated collegiate season.
The Lakers’ front office is obviously and unabashedly on board with the plan. When Rob Pelinka chose Bronny with the 55th overall selection, the general manager said he did it with history in mind: “The biggest moments in sports happen with the Lakers.”
Still, most basketball experts seem to agree Bronny is currently a fringe NBA prospect who almost certainly would have benefitted from another year or two in college. An identical 6-foot-2 player with a different last name probably wouldn’t have been drafted, even with one of the final picks in the second round.
The appearance of favoritism or nepotism toward Bronny obviously has the potential to sour players who had to work harder and longer for their opportunity — yet there’s no evidence anybody in a Lakers uniform is currently feeling that way.
If anything, the Lakers are uniformly protective of Bronny against the criticism he faces from the media’s chattering class and from skeptical fans around the league.
“There’s pressure on all of us, (but) the inherent pressure on him is a little different than most second-round picks, most 20 year olds,” Redick said. “But I don’t sense any nerves. For us, the thing we’ve talked with him, like a lot of young players, is you have to be more consistent with your effort and energy every day. Not to say it’s been bad. … I talk to him about the standard of who he is as a player, and he’ll eventually build that standard, and it’ll be apparent every game.”
Bronny’s new teammates have uniformly praised his work ethic and commitment to improving — and they say it’s no surprise, since Bronny has spent his life watching his father’s relentless drive to extend his unmatched career, which is now in its record-tying 22nd season.
Bronny has particularly earned respect for his defensive abilities since summer league play.
“He’s tough,” Davis said. “Obviously he’s defensive-minded. Some great blocks. The physicality he gets over on screens. He’s good with his hands as far as deflections and steals. But he’s also still learning. He’s still trying to figure everything out. We have to realize that. He’s still a rookie. It’s a different style of basketball, but I like what I’m seeing.”
AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in New York contributed.