It is a ground-breaking family affair that you could only see in Hollywood. Bronny James heard his named called in the NBA draft, and history was made.
With the No. 55 pick in the second round, the Los Angeles Lakers selected James. Deputy commissioner Mark Tatum announced the pick from ESPN’s Seaport studio on the edge of lower Manhattan’s Financial District where the second round was held.
Bronny, and his dad, NBA superstar LeBron James, are the first father-son player pair in the NBA at the same time. Bronny, 19 years old out of the University of Southern California, was drafted nearly 21 years to the date after LeBron was chosen No. 1 overall by his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003.
He is a 6-2 combo guard that can leap out of the gym and has strong defensive habits.
Bronny has gone through the gamut of emotions this year. He suffered a life-threatening cardiac arrest while working out on Southern California’s campus in July, leaving his basketball future in limbo.
Prior to his cardiac arrest episode, Bronny had a strong senior season at Sierra Canyon high school and had become a potential first-round pick. The cardiac arrest, which was the result of a congenital heart defect, halted his development and growth. He had surgery to repair the defect, was cleared to play for the Trojans and averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists and shot 36.6% from the field and 26.7% from 3-point range in 25 games during his freshman season in 2023-24.
The NBA’s Fitness to Play Panel also cleared James for NBA competition.
A few years back, LeBron emphatically stated he wanted to play alongside Bronny, but the elder James has since distanced himself from that sentiment saying as far back as a year ago that what the son wants is not always what the dad wants.
“I never thought about just playing with my dad, but of course he’s brought it up a couple times. But yeah, I don’t think about it,” Bronny said at the draft combine in Chicago in last month.
Despite sharing genes with one of the greatest basketball players of all time, experts and critics were not as high on James coming into the draft as they were when his father was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in 2003. One reason for that is because of James’ underwhelming freshman season at USC. As stated previously, the guard averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while shooting below 36% from the field. Couple that with a Trojans squad that severely underachieved, and it is clear James’ first and only season in college was not what everyone anticipated.
Embed from Getty ImagesLakers All-Star big man Anthony Davis told ESPN before the second round began Thursday that he supported the organization targeting Bronny.
“He’s very good defensively,” Davis told ESPN. “He can read the floor very well. I think he’s a really good playmaker. I saw him work out a couple times besides the [Klutch Sports] pro day and working with a big — his reads, reading the defense, making the right passes — that was really impressive to me. I think he’s going to be fine, man. Obviously, it’s a lot of pressure on him with his dad being who he is.
“But one thing about Bronny, from what I’ve seen and what I heard, he wants to create his own path and he doesn’t want to be — even though he’s LeBron James’ son, he don’t want be seen as that. And I think having that mindset and trying to create his own path is going to work out for him. … Who knows, he might come in and be ready to play for us.”
