History or hype? LeBron and Bronny James share spotlight in symbolic, yet complex Lakers win

LOS ANGELES — All in all, it was three minutes.

Three minutes of history, of a father and son ripping off their warmups to camera phones and flash bulbs popping.

Three minutes of the show getting in the way of the game, the moment getting in the way of winning.

Seminal moment or clown show? It all depends on the eyes of the beholder, watching LeBron James and Bronny James take the floor at the same time, late in the second quarter of the Lakers’ season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“I talked about it, years and years ago and for this moment to come, it was pretty cool,” LeBron James said. “In the moment, we still had a job to do when we checked in. We wasn’t trying to make it a circus, we wasn’t trying to make it about us. We wanted to make it about the game.”

“We kept the main thing the main thing.”

The circus does always seem to follow LeBron James, and it doesn’t seem like it’ll stop soon. This just happens to be the first time, as noted by Anthony Davis, that a milestone moment occurred in a Lakers win. So many celebrations have taken place within the backdrop of a loss, and before the night began, it certainly felt like Tuesday would follow a similar trek.

But the Timberwolves seemed bored and disengaged for most of the night, only showing glimpses of the team that made a surprising run to the Western Conference Finals a few months ago.

It aided in the Lakers’ 110-103 win, and the win was soothing considering the criticism that would’ve come their way had those three minutes been costly.

“I was wondering during a dead ball why everybody started cheering so loud and then I realized what was happening,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “I was like, ‘that’s cool.’ It presented an opportunity for Bronny. He’s played well, competed through preseason just to give him a chance to get it going in a regular season game.”

LeBron James and Bronny James made history Tuesday by playing together for the first time in an NBA regular-season game. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

The hype leading up to the game obscured other prevalent storylines that will take center stage for the…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/history-or-hype-lebron-and-bronny-james-share-spotlight-in-symbolic-yet-complex-lakers-win-080347988.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-23 08:03:00

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