EL SEGUNDO, California, USA —
LeBron James ends every practice these days by shooting baskets with his son.
As Los Angeles Lakers players begin their recovery with a small group of shooters after practice, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and his 20-year-old son Bronny James take turns taking a dozen shots together. to point guard Max Christie.
Receiving so much family time is still unreal for LeBron, even though he was the one who made it happen.
“It means everything to a father,” LeBron admitted.
Less than three years after James admitted he wanted to end his decorated career playing with his son, they already teamed up in the preseason. They will soon become the first father-son duo to play a regular season game in the NBA, on the same team.
“It’s a special feeling, a different feeling working with him,” said LeBron, who will turn 40 in December. “When you come to work every day, you want to try to help each other. It’s a bad day, you help him up… There are things we can do that I can’t put into words.”
The sports world has its sights on the two, and the Lakers will embark on an incredible experiment — although it could present a unique challenge for James’ teammates and rookie coach JJ Redick.
Bronny recognized and regretted the stigma on social media that there was favoritism and nepotism at the beginning of his NBA career. The Lakers were criticized for using a draft pick to ensure that father and son would play together, and their detractors questioned including a player like Bronny, who has yet to hone his skills, in a contender.
“It’s not going to be an easy situation to navigate,” said Stan Van Gundy, who has been a coach in the NBA as well as a commentator. “There will be a lot of noise surrounding Bronny. If he doesn’t play, people are going to want him to play next to LeBron. If he plays, people will say he doesn’t deserve it. But I think the focus should be that this is something to celebrate, it’s something incredible and we won’t see much of it.”
Few great athletes have played alongside their children — and Ken Griffey Sr., Tom Raines and Gordie Howe were not at their best when they teamed up with their children.
LeBron James remains one of the best players in the NBA and the Lakers are contenders for the title with a squad built around him and Anthony Davis.
In other words, there’s no time to play tricks.
But Bronny’s first months with the team have been positive for the team, both in the board and with the players. No matter how long they end up playing together this season, the Lakers clearly have no regrets about making basketball history.
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AP basketball reporter Brian Mahoney in New York contributed.
