The NBA season started with a bang thanks to LeBron and Bronny James, the first father/son duo on the same floor Tuesday in Los Angeles with the Lakers, after a grandiose first match for champion Boston.
Man of all records, LeBron James, who begins his 22nd NBA season at 39 (a record shared with Vince Carter), has once again made history, this time with his family, by playing at the highest level in a game of basketball with his son Bronny (20 years old), who is starting his career.
During the second quarter, Bronny entered the floor for his first follow-up from his father, with four minutes remaining in the period while the Lakers had a 16-point lead. Seconds later, LeBron crushed a monumental dunk.
“Are you ready? Do you see the intensity? Play without holding back,” the father said to the son before entering, according to the television microphones.
The story is beautiful a little more than a year after the cardiac arrest suffered by Bronny James during training with his university team in July 2023. Marked, LeBron James then expressed doubts about the follow-up to be given to his career, before deciding to extend it, with the desire to share the end with his son, who was able to pick up the thread of his progress.
After Bronny was drafted in 55th position by the Lakers in June, the James family was able to reunite in New York: “we thought about this scary moment that had happened to us,” LeBron James said earlier in the day .
“The moment he steps on an NBA floor, he will be able to remember everything he went through to get here.”
– “A delight” –
The two players had already played a few minutes together on October 6 in Palm Springs (California), but for a pre-season match against Phoenix.
“Just the pre-season was a delight, the training, the daily life, taking the plane together, the bus, showing him the ropes, explaining to him what a professional life is, and how to prepare every day , it was super-mega cool,” LeBron explained again.
In the Crypto.com Arena in the Los Angeles business district, James father and son delighted the spectators, including Ken Griffey Sr. and his son Ken Griffey Jr., who had experienced the same fate on a baseball field in 1990 and 1991 with the Seattle Mariners. The Griffeys posed for a photo with the James at the start of the meeting.
Some father/son duos have already marked the history of American sport, Gordie Howe with his sons Mark and Marty in the NHL (hockey), or even Tim Raines Sr. and Tim Raines Jr. in MLB (baseball) at the beginning of the years 2000.
After this great first, the role of Bronny James within the Lakers of new coach JJ Redick, close to LeBron, remains uncertain.
Far from being as expected as LeBron, nicknamed “the Chosen One”, for his first season in 2003, the young guard should not get many minutes of play and will be called upon to continue his progression between the NBA and the G League, its development championship.
– Boston crushes New York –
LeBron James, four-time NBA champion, will continue his exceptional career, a little more than two months after being a gold medalist at the Paris Olympic Games this summer with Team USA.
Titled with the Lakers in 2020, the quest for a new trophy however promises to be unpredictable for the “King”, while the squad which was eliminated in the first round of the play-offs by Denver (4-1) in the spring did not move this summer.
The certainties are much more anchored among the Boston Celtics: the reigning champion thrashed the New York Knicks, outsiders in the East, in the opening (132-109), showing himself as the big favorite of the season.
The first basket was scored from afar by Jayson Tatum (37 points), untenable, and set the tone for a one-sided game where the “C’s” crushed their opponent with 29 successful three-point shots (out of 61) , an NBA record equaled, while having missed the last 13!
After his surprise arrival from Minnesota, Karl-Anthony Towns played his first minutes with the Knicks (12 points, 7 rebounds), as did Frenchman Pacôme Dadiet (3 points and 1 rebound in 13 minutes).
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