There is arguably no franchise in professional basketball that has seen more history take place in its uniforms than the Los Angeles Lakers, and Tuesday night was just the latest chapter in that respect, as LeBron James and his son, Bronny, became the first father-son duo to share the court at the same time in NBA history.
But while that is the historical trivia most will remember from the night, the more heartwarming visual from the evening was far simpler — of a father and a son, just having a catch in an NBA game:
But while — between a dribble hand-off between the two and an attempted feed from LeBron to Bronny for three — the Lakers tried to make a Bronny/LeBron highlight happen, unfortunately the closest they got was this missed shot.
At least they completed a few passes, though, they’ll have those father-son moments forever.
The Lakers had played coy all week about whether this would happen on night one or not, but head coach JJ Redick had continuously reiterated that he wanted the moment to happen “naturally.” It’s hard to feel like “with Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. sitting courtside on opening night as the team’s 14th or 15th man checks in in the first half” is all that “natural,” but to the former podcaster’s credit, his team was up 51-35 with four minutes to go in the first half when Bronny checked in.
So while it’s hard not to feel like all this wasn’t at least a bit pre-planned, that is at least a plausible lead for a coach to play unusual lineups with while stealing some extra rest for their regular rotation.
And while it wasn’t set up by his son, LeBron did at least have a monster dunk during their shared minutes:
Looks like the Lakers go with Spain PnR here. MIN handles it relatively well, but what a SETUP from LeBron before the backdoor cut. pic.twitter.com/u19M7KGRDT
— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) October 23, 2024
We’ll just say James Jr.’s gravity set that one up and call it a night.
Bronny ended up being a -5 in three minutes before checking out, but hey, “playing with his son in an NBA game” is still a pretty unreal moment in the LeBron James story, even if we’ve known it was coming for a while. We may never see longevity like this from a professional basketball player again.
