Getty Bronny James reacts during a game between Sierra Canyon and St. Vincent-St. Mary at Staples Center, home of the LA Lakers.
Ever since it became clear that Bronny James would be following in the footsteps of his legendary father, LeBron James, the possibility that the two could play together in the NBA has been a talking point for fans and pundits. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers star has called playing with his son a career goal.
Although the earliest that could possibly happen is in 2023 — the year LeBron will turn 39 — Bronny just got a chance to strut his stuff on his dad’s home court.
The younger James led Sierra Canyon into battle against LeBron’s alma mater, St. Vincent-St. Mary’s, at Staples Center on Saturday as part of The Chosen-1’s Invitational. In front of a star-studded crowd that included LeBron and some of his Lakers teammates, Bronny made the iconic court his own, too.
With a game-high 19 points to his credit, Bronny and his crew put the beatdown on the Ohio school, picking up a 71-53 win.
Bronny: ‘It Felt Special’
This isn’t the first time Bronny’s Trailblazers had taken a game from LeBron’s Fighting Irish. Two years ago, when the former was just a freshman, he secured a 59-56 win in a game played in Columbus, Ohio when he stole the ball and got the go-ahead basket on a finger roll with under a minute remaining.
At the time, he was playing in a support role behind five-star recruits (and, now, NBA rookies) B.J. Boston and Ziaire Williams. On this occasion, though, with Sierra Canyon’s best player in Amari Bailey out with an injury, it was up to Bronny to run the show.
And he did so to tremendous effect.
“Bronny has, over the last couple of weeks, taken great strides and for him to show his ability, his confidence, his poise in a game like this was amazing,” Blazers head coach Andre Chevalier said, via Yahoo! Sports. “With someone like Amari being out, Bronny has stepped up and showed his leadership on the court.”
For his part, Bronny took inspiration from playing in the Lakers’ arena.
“It felt special playing on the same court as he’s played,” James said after the game. “I’m getting a lot of confidence from that, and it was a really special game for me. Afterwards, [LeBron] just said he liked everything I was doing, with my poise and my pace for the game.”
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Kareem Not Impressed With LeBron’s ‘Big Balls’ Dance
During a late November win over the Indiana Pacers, LeBron celebrated a clutch three-pointer by dusting off Sam Cassell’s infamous “big balls” dance. The move elicited a major response among fans and on the Twittersphere, but the league office was less than impressed; they saw fit to fine him $15,000.
Apparently, Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar didn’t like the dance either. In a Substack commentary video posted on his YouTube channel on December 1, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer took the King to task for his lewd celebration.
“For me, winning is enough,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Why do you need to do a stupid, childish dance and disrespect the other team on the court? It doesn’t make sense. GOATs don’t dance.”
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Bronny James One-Ups LeBron’s HS Team on Lakers’ Court