THE SECOND — Media days around the NBA are a wasteland for anyone looking for factual information about the record. Instead, they have the feel of a PR piece. For example, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and coach JJ Redick spoke to the media on Wednesday, with Pelinka saying he would be willing to trade both available Lakers first-round picks (2029 and 2031) in a deal that would promote “continued Lakers excellence.” That’s a lot of words to say they’d do it for the right star player, something everyone around the league has known — and has been written about extensively here and elsewhere — since before the trade deadline last February.
There was an interesting story, however, when Pelinka talked about the first NBA father/son duo of LeBron and Bronny James and the challenges that came with it.
“Maybe the challenge is with Bronny, when, like in our game yesterday or two days ago, he saw LeBron and LeBron took him to the baseline and under the glass, and the words that were exchanged after that were probably the biggest challenge,” Pelinka said.
Oh, how we wish there was public video footage of this. LeBron responded to Pelinka’s quote on Instagram“Great defense. Better O.”
As for when LeBron and Bronny could play together on an NBA court, nothing has been formalized yet, according to Redick.
“We don’t have anything planned, per se, in terms of a commitment to do it this way,” Redick said. “We’ve obviously talked about it as a staff, and we’ve gotten into some specifics about what that might look like, but we haven’t committed to anything. And obviously there’s a discussion to be had when we’re all together with Bronny and LeBron, they should be a part of that discussion as well.”
Many around the league expect the Lakers to play them together for a few minutes early in the season — perhaps on opening night against Minnesota at Crypto.com Arena. The G League season doesn’t start until a few weeks after the NBA season, so having the family members play together early would give Los Angeles a chance to address and eliminate this potentially distracting issue, significantly reducing the questions when Bronny spends the majority of his season with the South Bay Lakers (where he needs to develop his game).
Redick had nothing but praise for Bronnie.
“Bronnie, I feel very fortunate to coach him because he’s young and he’s hungry and he’s got a lot of inherent skills that we can really mold into a really good NBA player,” Redick said. “On top of that, he’s a great kid. He’s extremely coachable. He brings the right spirit and energy every day.”
That’s what coaches and GMs say about players on media day. In Bronny’s case, we hope that’s the reality and that he develops into a good player over time.
