LeBron James gave his 20-year-old son a pep talk before they got up from the Lakers bench. They walked together to the scorer’s table to loud cheers – and immediately entered basketball history.
LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to play together in the NBA on Tuesday night during the Los Angeles Lakers’ season opener, fulfilling a dream set forth a few years ago by LeBron, the leading scorer in the league’s history.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
LeBron James is one of the greatest players in NBA history, a four-time champion and a twenty-time All-Star, while LeBron James Jr. was picked in the second round by the Lakers last summer. They are the first father and son to play in the world’s best basketball league at the same time, let alone on the same team.
“Y’all ready? You see the intensity, right? Just play carefree,” Dad said to his son on the couch before they checked in, a conversation captured by the TNT cameras and microphones. “Don’t worry about mistakes. Just go out there and play hard.”
Their time together on the court was fast and furious, just as LeBron promised.
LeBron, who finished the night with 16 points, missed two perimeter shots before making a dunk. Bronny had an early offensive rebound and missed a tip-in, and his first NBA jump shot moments later was a three-pointer that fell just short. He controlled the ball one possession later with 1:19 left in the second quarter and received another ovation.
Bronny did not play again in the Lakers’ 110-103 win over the Timberwolves.
“(I) tried not to focus on everything that was going on around me, and tried to focus on coming in as a newcomer and not messing up,” Bronny said. “But yeah, I really felt the energy, and I appreciate Laker Nation for showing the support for me and my dad.”
After the final whistle of the Lakers’ first victory in LeBron’s seven seasons with the team, father and son also headed to the locker room together — but not before stopping in the tunnel to hug Savannah James, LeBron’s wife and Bronny’s mother . The whole family was there to watch the history – no less than on sister Zhuri’s tenth birthday.
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Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. also lined up courtside at the Lakers’ downtown arena to witness the same history they made in Major League Baseball. The two sluggers played 51 games together for the Seattle Mariners in 1990 and 1991 as baseball’s first father-son duo.
The Jameses and the Griffeys met during pre-game warmups for some photos and warm conversation between two notable family lines.
LeBron first spoke about his dream of playing alongside Bronny a few years ago, when his eldest son was still in high school. The dream became a reality after Bronny entered the draft as a teenager after one collegiate season, and the Lakers took him with the 55th overall pick.
“I talked about it years and years ago, and for this moment, it’s pretty cool,” LeBron said. “I don’t know if it’s going to affect both of us for a minute, but if we can really sit back and take it in, it’s pretty crazy. … But at that point, we still had a task to do when we checked in. We didn’t try to make it a circus. We didn’t try to make it about the team.’
LeBron and Bronny joined a small club of father-son professional athletes who played together. The Griffeys made history 34 years ago, even homering in the same game on September 14, 1990.
Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines and his son of the same name also accomplished the feat with the Baltimore Orioles in 2001.
In hockey, Gordie Howe played with his two sons, Mark and Marty, with the WHA’s Houston Eros and Team Canada before spending one NHL season together with the Hartford Whalers in 1979-80, when Gordie was 51.
While the other family combinations on this list came late in the fathers’ careers, LeBron shows no signs of slowing down or declining as he enters his NBA record-breaking 22nd season.
LeBron averaged more than 25 points per game for his 20th straight season last year, and he remains the Lakers’ key player alongside Anthony Davis as they try to recapture the form that won a championship in 2020 and took them to the Finals the Western Conference. in 2023.
Bronny survived cardiac arrest and open-heart surgery in the summer of 2023, and he played a truncated freshman season at the University of Southern California. He declared for the draft anyway, and the Lakers eagerly used the fourth-to-last pick in the draft on the 6-foot-1 guard.
LeBron spent the summer in Europe with the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the Paris Olympics, while Bronny played for the Lakers in the summer league. They started practicing together with the Lakers before heading to training camp.
The duo played together for the first time in the preseason, logging four minutes earlier this month during a game against Phoenix just outside Palm Springs.
“It was a treat,” LeBron said during shootaround Tuesday morning. “In preseason, training, just every day… getting him up to speed on what this professional life is all about, and how to prepare every day as a professional.”
The Lakers were fully aware of the history they would make with this combination, and coach JJ Redick recently spoke with the Jameses about a plan to make it happen early in the regular season.
The Griffeys’ presence probably made it inevitable for opening night, even though Redick said the Lakers still wanted it to happen “naturally, over the course of the game.”
The Lakers have declined to speculate on how long Bronny will remain on their NBA roster. Los Angeles already has three other small guards on the roster, and Bronny will likely need regular playing time to elevate his game to a consistent NBA level.
These factors indicate that Bronny will likely join the G League affiliate South Bay Lakers soon. LeBron and Redick have both spoken positively about the South Bay team, saying player development is an important part of the Lakers organization.
Miami forward Kevin Love, who knew all the James children — Bronny, Bryce and Zhuri — from his time as LeBron’s teammate in Cleveland, said it was “an incredible moment” to see father and son play together.
“I grew up a Mariners fan, so I saw Griffey and then Griffey Sr. But this is different because LeBron is still a top five player in the league,” Love said. “This game, man. That’s why we got that TV deal ($76 billion). The storylines and the things that happen like this, it’s an incredible story. This is really cool to see.”
