Los Angeles Lakers rookie Bronny James has been the subject of a lot of attention and scrutiny during his young NBA career despite not having officially played a game yet.
Bronny’s ties to his father LeBron James make him an easy target for the media and fans, but the Lakers will still make headlines when the two share the court together for the first time during the 2024-25 season. Head coach JJ Redick has yet to confirm if the plan is to play Bronny and LeBron on Opening Night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the initial expectation is he’ll have the two of them out there for a moment to get history out of the way.
The NBA has never had a father and son play together on the same team before, though the precedent does exist in MLB as Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. were teammates on the Seattle Mariners during the 1990 and 1991 MLB seasons. The father-son baseball duo will be in attendance at Crypto.com Arena for Opening Night to witness NBA history, adding even anticipation for the moment.
When informed the Griffeys would be at the game, Bronny admitted he’s looking forward to seeing them in the arena.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be exciting,” James said. “Two families to do it, so it’s gonna be a crazy experience especially with what they’ve done.”
It’s amazing that the Griffeys will be in the arena for the presumable moment that Bronny and LeBron share the floor and the pairs will likely meet up afterwards to celebrate the occasion.
The situations between the father and son pairs is different, though, as the Griffeys weren’t subject to this much media attention during their playing days in the 1990s. There was also the anticipation leading up to Bronny’s draft as the industry was widely projecting him to land in Los Angeles.
Regardless, it’ll be an amazing moment for the Lakers franchise who have a knack for creating headlines around the league. Bronny is expected to spend most of the 2024-25 season in the G League with the South Bay Lakers, but will have his first career-defining moment in the NBA soon.
Magic Johnson believes Bronny James is going to be really good
Although Bronny James was drafted, the understanding is that he will be afforded an opportunity to develop behind the scenes. While Bronny might be raw as a prospect, people like Magic Johnson believe he’ll be really good at some point.
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