Father and son: LeBron and Bronny James make NBA history as a duo
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You need to be a stone-hearted Grinch to have not felt at least a twinge of emotion watching LeBron James and his son, Bronny, check into Tuesday night’s season opener between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves—the first father and son duo to play together in NBA history. James père et fils, ages 39 and 20, numbers 23 and 9, entering seasons 22 and 1, jointly entered the game with four minutes left in the second quarter and the Lakers up by 16. It was a brief cameo for Bronny—a little less than three minutes in a game the Lakers eventually won 110-103.
The only near father-son highlight happened when a driving LeBron flipped his son a perfect pass for a 3-point shot, which he sadly bricked. Oh well. (In the sure-to-come movie, it will be a swish.) I didn’t get misty, though I suspect some Laker die-hards teared up when they saw Bronny’s jumper shudder off the rim.
None of us will pretend there wasn’t some goofy front-office engineering to make this pairing happen—the mediocre Lakers, with their multiple deficiencies, using a second-round draft pick to take the unproven, undersized son of their aging, influential star. But who cares for now? Tuesday night was for every sports parent who’s suffered through roster cuts, endless car trips, missing shoes and mouth guards and can’t believe the NBA’s oldest active player is getting to realize the dream of playing alongside a child. It’s especially touching knowing that 15 months ago, the younger James suffered a cardiac arrest as a freshman at USC.
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