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Lebron James and Bronny playing together has been a long time coming. (AP Photo/William Liang)
LeBron James and his eldest son Bronny are officially the first father-son duo to take the court together in NBA history.
The accomplishment teased for years and locked in at the 2024 NBA Draft came to pass in the Los Angeles Lakers’ season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday. The elder James was in the starting lineup, but needed to wait until eight minutes into the second quarter for his son to make an appearance.
Once the pair checked in, they received a knowing ovation:
Some microphones also caught LeBron offering some fatherly advice before the two checked in.
The two took the court together earlier in preseason, with LeBron later tweeting it was “SURREAL.” You can only wonder how Tuesday felt, especially after so many years of anticipation.
LeBron James has pushed to play with Bronny for years
LeBron had hinted for years that he planned to play alongside his son, even going so far as to say he would spend his final season paying with Bronny in 2022, when Bronny was a high-school junior. Even for a four-star recruit like Bronny, those are high expectations.
Bronny’s path to the NBA wound up being more turbulent than expected. He chose to stay close to home and play for USC in college, but a congenital heart defect significantly delayed his debut and he was a little more than a reserve when he did start playing, averaging 4.8 points in 19.6 minutes per game.
Still, the child of LeBron James is going to attract attention from NBA front offices. Bronny was one of the biggest enigmas of the draft, with shared agent Rich Paul publicly insisting there was no behind-the-scenes engineering to ensure LeBron would play with his son. Regardless, few were surprised when the Lakers selected Bronny with the 55th overall pick.
There was some question if Bronny would see NBA action immediately considering he is essentially an end-of-the-bench player for the Lakers, but the team decided to get the father-son history out of the way quickly.
