Lakers News: CBA Revision May Postpone On-Court Bryce James Pairing With LeBron
Los Angeles Lakers All-Star small forward LeBron James has long expressed a desire to play alongside both his sons, LeBron "Bronny" James Jr. and Bryce James, one day.
The NBA's new Collective Bargaining Agreement seems to have precluded that by at least an extra year.
Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the fresh CBA agreement will not lower the minimum age designation for the league, thus keeping the one-and-done policy in place. High schoolers will still be required to hold off for a year following their graduation before they can enter the draft.
A lot of speculation ahead of the actually announced CBA had been centered around the league lowering that age limit, and allowing players to once again hop into the NBA straight out of high school.
That original one-and-done rule was initially established in 2005, despite the success of Lakers greats James and Kobe Bryant, Hall of Fame big men Moses Malone or Kevin Garnett, or All-Stars like one-time Laker Tyson Chandler, as terrific prep-to-pro prospects. Of course, for every LeBron James, there was a Kwame Brown, who despite a long career (including a few seasons with Bryant and the Lakers) never achieved his incredible potential that made him the top draft pick in 2001.
Provided he sticks with basketball and continues on his current very enticing trajectory, Bryce, a freshman at Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, would have been NBA draft-eligible in 2026 were he able to join the league straight out of high school. Now, it'll be 2027, when LeBron would theoretically be on the precipice of his 24th NBA season.
Will he even be able to stay healthy for 40 games a year by that point? I'm dubious.
The league's newly-agreed upon CBA is set to kick off at the official start of the 2023-24 season this summer.
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