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.
LOS ANGELES — 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.