Every NBA rookie typically receives a long leash to learn from their mistakes. The dynamic between Lakers head coach JJ Redick and Bronny James was no different during the 2024-25 season.
However, there was one specific game in April 2025 when Redick yelled at James for not playing to his potential and missing several assignments. The game in question was the team’s season finale against the Portland Trail Blazers on April 13. By then, the Lakers had already locked up the No. 3 seed, leading to Redick resting his top rotational players and emptying his bench. As a result, Bronny got the first start of his NBA career.
At the end of the first half, Bronny had two points on 1-of-4 shooting, along with two turnovers, as the Lakers trailed the Blazers by 15 points.
Unhappy with Bronny’s performance, Redick chewed out the son of LeBron James.
JJ Redick Recalls Yelling at Bronny
“It was the only time I really got on him all year,” Redick told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin of the dressing down he gave Bronny during the Blazers game.
“The thing I said to him was: My belief in you as a player can’t be higher than your belief in you. And the standard you hold yourself has to be higher than the standard I’m going to hold you to.”
Bronny finished the game with four points, six assists, four steals, and three rebounds, as the Lakers lost to the Trail Blazers by a final margin of 109-81. Although Bronny couldn’t add to his first-half points tally, he showed more resilience as a defender and playmaker in the final 24 minutes, impressing Redick in the process.
By all accounts, Bronny’s rookie season in the NBA was a disappointment. The second-generation player averaged 2.3 points, 0.8 assists and 0.7 rebounds from 27 games, albeit from just 6.7 minutes per outing.
Bronny Ready to Take a Leap in Year 2
Entering his second year, Bronny knows that he will once again have to fight for minutes in the Lakers’ crowded backcourt that includes Luka Doncic, Marcus Smart, Austin Reaves and Gabe Vincent. During the Las Vegas Summer League, Bronny said that he plans to crack Redick’s rotation by playing elite defense, considering it his only path to receive meaningful
“To get myself on the floor, I’ve got to be a defensive menace,” he said, via The Athletic’s Dan Woike. “That’s my main focus, getting conditioned this year. It’s been shown that I know how to score the ball a little bit, I’m staying true to that, but also focusing on the defensive end.”
Vincent expects Bronny to challenge him for minutes as a sophomore.
“We might be competing for minutes down the line, but as a teammate, as a human, as a person, I want nothing but the best for him,” Vincent told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “And it only makes the Lakers better if we’re having competitions for depth chart spots.”
“It’s hard, I think, sometimes in Laker Land and sometimes as a young player with expectations on him, to have a big-picture mindset and to look at the overall thing,” Vincent said of Bronny. “But for me, we’ve seen the growth in him from Year 1 to now, so it’s important to just continue to rise.”
The ‘Only Time’ JJ Redick Yelled at Lakers Rookie Bronny James