NBA Opening Night Was All About Keeping Up With the Jameses

LeBron and Bronny James shared the floor as teammates in the Lakers’ win over the Timberwolves, creating an iconic moment in league history that we won’t soon forget.

LeBron James and Bronny James share the court for the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday as the first father-son duo to accomplish the feat in NBA history. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Forget the game. 

This was about the moment. 

Twenty minutes into the Los Angeles Lakers’ season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves, with exactly four minutes to play in the second quarter and L.A. up 14, the 18,997 fans stuffed inside Crypto.com Arena witnessed history. LeBron James subbed into the game. Bronny James, his oldest son, checked in alongside him. For the first time in the NBA’s 78-year history, father and son shared the floor. 

“I totally [felt] the energy,” Bronny said. 

Said LeBron: “That moment, us being at the scorer’s table together, checking in together is something I will never forget. No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade as I get older or whatever, I will never forget that moment.”

LeBron passes to Bronny during Tuesday’s season opener. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Even to the most cynical fan—this was cool. Minutes before checking in, TNT microphones caught LeBron giving his new teammate a pep talk. “You see the intensity, right?” James asked Bronny. “Just play carefree. Don’t worry about mistakes. Just play hard.” 

And he did. Offensively, Bronny hustled in transition. He battled with Joe Ingles on the other end of the floor. On an early possession, the Jameses tried set up a father-son connection. Ingles read a Bronny back-cut and scuttled the play. On the next, LeBron set up Bronny for an open three. He missed. After 2½ minutes of action, Bronny was subbed out. 

“I felt pretty good,” Bronny said. “I was a little anxious going into it … that first game, stepping on the court, it’s a little nerve-wracking. But once I stepped on the court, got up and down a couple of times, it all went away.”

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Certainly there was choreography to it. Bronny, a 20-year-old late second-round pick, had a rough preseason. He hadn’t earned a place in the rotation. He hadn’t earned a place in the league. But in the hours before the season opener, word began to filter out that he was going to play. And why not? The national television cameras were rolling. The Griffeys, the last father-son duo to share a major league surface, were in the building. Better to make the moment happen now than in a mid-November game in Memphis. 

There were reasons to, you know, get it over with. Bronny is a project. The Lakers know it. Bronny knows it. He’s a 6' 1" combo guard, an endangered species in today’s NBA. He has all of 483 minutes of college basketball experience on his resume. He shouldn’t be in Los Angeles. He should be in South Bay, with the Lakers’ G League affiliate. He doesn’t need to be sitting on a bench. He needs to be playing minutes. 

Cynics will say Bronny didn’t deserve this opportunity. Fine. He likely would have gone undrafted if not for his famous father. He certainly wouldn’t have been rewarded with a multiyear deal. But he didn’t need to work as hard as he did to become an NBA prospect, and he did. He didn’t need to continue playing basketball after a near fatal cardiac incident in the summer of 2023 … and he did. Question Bronny’s size and skills. You can’t question his commitment. 

Another thing that connects father and son. In 22 seasons, LeBron has accomplished a lot. Four championships, four MVPs, two decades worth of All-Star appearances. Just last year James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the NBA’s scoring list. This moment, James said, hit different. 

“I talked about it years and years ago and for this moment to come, it’s pretty cool,” James said. “I don’t know that it’s going to actually hit the both of us for a little minute where we really get to sit back and say, ‘That was pretty crazy.’ But in the moment, we still had a job to do when we checked in. We wasn’t trying to make it a circus, we wasn’t trying to make it about us. We wanted to make it about the team to go out there and continue to play the game.”

LeBron and Bronny James are interviewed and surrounded by cameras after their historic moment. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Oh, yeah, the game. The Lakers won, 110–103. Anthony Davis (36 points, 16 rebounds) was dominant. Rui Hachimura (a team-high plus-19) was sharp. In his coaching debut, JJ Redick looked up to the task. There’s work to be done on the three-point shooting (L.A. finished 5-of-30) and the bench needs to chip in more, but toppling a conference finalist on opening night is solid work. 

“All our guys competed,” Redick said, “and that’s really all we’re asking.”

Fine. There will be plenty of time to dissect the Lakers. This night was about the Jameses. The entire group was in the building Tuesday. Friends, family, roundabout acquaintances. It offered a full-circle moment. After the game, LeBron lamented all the time he had lost with his family over the years. How playing with Bronny offered him an opportunity to get some of it back. 

“I’ve noticed it for sure,” Bronny said. “It’s a lot of time that we haven’t had together. But it’s just all part of what we love to do and there’s nothing we can do about that. So yeah, it’s a great feeling to be together for what we love to do.”