LeBron James Gave Bronny Two-Word Message Amid Lakers’ Summer League Struggles

The Lakers great passed on some advice to his son.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
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Even though LeBron James is thousands of miles away overseas preparing for the Paris games with Team USA, the Los Angeles Lakers star has still been making time to watch his son Bronny’s NBA summer league games.

And what kind of a sports dad would he be if he didn’t offer Bronny any advice?

Bronny revealed what his father has told him throughout his lackluster summer league showings in a postgame interview after the Lakers’ 87-86 win over the Atlanta Hawks.

“Stay aggressive,” James said. “Even though my shot hasn’t been falling, just to stay aggressive.”

The Lakers beat the Hawks on Wednesday to clinch their first summer league victory in a game that also happened to feature Bronny’s most impressive performance thus far. The former Trojan guard went 5-of-11 from the field for 12 points and also sank his first three-pointers of his professional career, going 2-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Still, Bronny’s highlights on Wednesday don’t erase his less-than-stellar summer league outing at large, which has seen the second-round draft pick average just 4.3 points and a stretch in which he missed all 15 of his three-point attempts in his first four games.

No stranger to criticism, Bronny focused instead on his excitement about playing with his father in the upcoming season.

“I feel like playing together, going to work together every day is just gonna build the relationship we already have, build that connection even stronger,” Bronny told reporters on Wednesday. “I'm excited to get to work with my dad.”

The Lakers will play two final summer league games in Las Vegas this week against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls.


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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.