Bronny James, son of NBA main scorer LeBron James, talks to media in the course of the 2024 NBA basketball Draft Mix in Chicago, Tuesday, Could 14, 2024. (AP Picture/Nam Y. Huh)
It was the dream that LeBron James first floated a couple of years in the past, the notion of taking part in within the NBA alongside one in every of his sons.
And it’s a step nearer to actuality now.
Bronny James — the oldest son of the NBA’s all-time scoring chief and four-time champion — was drafted Thursday by the Los Angeles Lakers, the crew that his father has performed for since 2018. Bronny James was taken with the No. 55 general choose, deep within the second spherical and with solely three picks remaining on this 12 months’s draft.
“Past blessed,” Bronny James wrote in an Instagram publish.
Laker pic.twitter.com/Oay24Bq3M0
— Bronny (@BronnyJamesJr) June 28, 2024
Including additional intrigue to the transfer: LeBron James can grow to be a free agent subsequent week, which implies he may select to depart the Lakers and signal elsewhere.
“Within the historical past of the NBA, there’s by no means been a father and a son which have shared an NBA basketball courtroom and that looks like one thing that might be magical,” Lakers basic supervisor Rob Pelinka mentioned. “We all know, and should respect after all, that LeBron has a choice on his opt-out … but when it labored out that he was on our crew subsequent season, NBA historical past might be made. And NBA historical past ought to be made in a Lakers uniform.”
READ: Bronny James not picked in NBA Draft Spherical 1, now Spherical 2 awaits
The draft transfer doesn’t assure that father and son will really play in a sport collectively, nor does it even assure that Bronny James might be on the Lakers’ roster subsequent season. However it actually raises the chance that it may occur in what can be an NBA first — a father-son on-court duo within the league concurrently as gamers. There have been about 100 cases in NBA historical past of gamers becoming a member of the league after their fathers performed, however these at all times got here a minimum of 5 years after the daddy’s profession ended.
FILE – Southern California’s Bronny James (6) brings the ball up the courtroom in the course of the first half of an NCAA school basketball sport towards Washington within the first spherical of the Pac-12 match Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in Las Vegas. It’s unclear the place the son of NBA nice LeBron James would possibly land on this month’s NBA draft. (AP Picture/John Locher, File)
However LeBron James’ unbelievable longevity — he’ll match Vince Carter for the longest profession as an NBA participant ever this coming season, which might be his twenty second within the league — makes the father-son duo doable.
“With the fifty fifth choose within the 2024 NBA draft, the Los Angeles Lakers choose Bronny James from the College of Southern California,” NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum mentioned in asserting the choose, making the second official for the 19-year-old, who was born simply earlier than the beginning of his father’s second NBA season.
It’s doable that Bronny James’ debut in a Lakers uniform might be July 12 in Las Vegas, within the franchise’s summer season league opener towards the Houston Rockets.
READ: Bronny James ‘grateful’ to have NBA dream in attain after well being scare
Bronny James is a guard, one who was listed at 6-foot-4 on Southern California’s roster however measured at 6 toes, 1 1/2 inches on the draft mix. That might make him one of many shortest gamers within the NBA, however his athleticism and defensive potential helped give him this chance.
“Bronny is, at the start, an individual of excessive character,” Pelinka mentioned. “And second, he’s a younger man that works extremely onerous. These are the qualities we search for in drafting gamers and including to our developmental corps on the Lakers.”
There might be cries of nepotism, cries that the Lakers did this solely due to who LeBron James is. However Pelinka insisted that the Lakers could have a plan for Bronny James’ improvement, that the group sees his potential and that he personally has been impressed with the character Bronny James confirmed whereas rising up.
Pelinka and the Lakers workers, together with newly employed coach J.J. Redick, made the decision to Klutch Sports activities CEO Wealthy Paul earlier than the choose was made and had been in a position to communicate with Bronny James moments earlier than the choice was formally official.
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“Coach Redick and I had been in a position to welcome him to the Lakers household and let him know that this second was taking place largely due to the work he’s put into the sport and due to the character younger man that he’s,” Pelinka mentioned. “That was what was expressed to him on the telephone name.”
Bronny James performed one 12 months of school basketball at USC and averaged 4.8 factors, 2.8 rebounds and a pair of.1 assists per sport final season. He performed in 25 video games, lacking the beginning of the season after needing a process final 12 months to repair what was identified as a congenital coronary heart defect, which was discovered after he went into cardiac arrest throughout a summer season exercise.
A panel of medical doctors cleared Bronny James for NBA play final month.
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Nike, the shoe large that LeBron James has had a enterprise relationship with by way of everything of his NBA profession, wasted no time in congratulating Bronny James by releasing a brand new advert — “The journey continues. Welcome to the large stage, Bronny,” the corporate wrote.
Day 2 of the draft noticed 24 different gamers get taken earlier than Bronny James, although none of them — not even shut, actually — received the eye that the No. 55 choice obtained, for apparent causes.
The fifty fifth choose not often seems to be a participant who captures a slew of consideration. The most effective fifty fifth choose in NBA historical past can be present Miami Warmth guard Patty Mills, chosen in 2009 and somebody who has scored 7,893 factors in his 15-season profession.
Another notable No. 55 picks embody Marc Iavaroni, Mark Blount, Kenny Gattison and E’Twaun Moore. There’s by no means been a No. 55 choose that was an NBA All-Star, an All-NBA participant, an All-Rookie crew participant or an All-Defensive crew choose.
Final season’s No. 55 choose, Isaiah Wong, scored precisely two factors for Indiana as a rookie. Add up each No. 55 choose ever, and their NBA profession scoring complete is 28,364 factors — greater than 12,000 factors lower than LeBron James has scored in his profession.
“The largest moments in sports activities occur with the Lakers,” Pelinka mentioned. “That’s how we’re constructed and we’re excited to see this story unfold.”
