LOS ANGELES — LeBron James made history the moment he stepped on the court of the Los Angeles Lakers’ season opener Tuesday, officially beginning his record-tying 22nd NBA season.
One quarter later, another superlative followed — this time when his son joined him on the court.
James, the 39-year-old Lakers superstar, and his oldest son, Bronny, 20, became the first father-son duo in the league’s history to play together in a regular-season game.
The moment, which had been highly anticipated since the Lakers drafted Bronny 55th overall on June 27, became reality with 4 minutes left in the second quarter against Minnesota when Lakers coach J.J. Redick looked down his bench and motioned for both father and son, who had been sitting next to each other on the sideline, to check in.
“About ready? Let’s see the intensity, all right?” LeBron said to Bronny, as captured by NBA cameras. “Just play carefree, though. Don’t worry about mistakes. Just go out and play hard.”
Fans in Crypto.com Arena began to stand for an ovation before the two had even jogged halfway to the scorer’s table.
“I totally did feel the energy,” Bronny James said.
By the time the rookie stepped onto the court for the first official minute of his NBA career, his presence in the lineup alongside his father had created a roar of noise.
Among those cheering from courtside seats were Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., who in 1990 became the first father-son duo to play together in MLB history. The Griffeys and the Jameses greeted one another before tipoff on the court before they posed for a photo. Few other parallels exist in American professional sports: The Raineses, in MLB, played together, and hockey’s Howe family did, as well.
The night’s foremost priority, LeBron said, was earning the Lakers’ first win in a season-opener since 2016. They did that, beating the Timberwolves 110-103 in a game in which the elder James scored 16 points.
But “obviously us being at the scorer’s table together, checking in together, is something I will never forget that moment,” LeBron James said. “No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade as I get old or whatever, I will never forget that moment.”
He later added: “For this moment to come, it’s pretty cool. I don’t know that’s actually going to hit the both of us for a little minute.”
During one possession, Bronny passed to his father atop the 3-point arc, and LeBron drove into the paint before he passed back to his son for an open 3-pointer. The noise grew as the shot was released, but it missed. Bronny was taken out with 1:29 left before halftime, his first stint of NBA action having lasted 2 minutes, 41 seconds. Bronny did not play again; he finished with one rebound and zero points, missing two shots.
Bronny said he was “a little anxious going into it.”
“That first game stepping onto the court is a little nerve-wracking,” he said. “But once I stepped onto the court and got up and down a couple times, it all went away. I felt pretty good.”
Lakers coach J.J. Redick said the team had planned to play LeBron and Bronny together late in the first half. When the Lakers’ lead grew to 16, the time was right to put both in the game.
“I was wondering why during a dead ball, everyone was cheering so loud,” Redick said. “And then I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”
Redick added that Bronny “has played well, he’s competed throughout the preseason … he had a mismatch and [Minnesota’s Julius] Randle hit a tough two on him, but other than that, he played well.”
In the preseason, LeBron and Bronny discussed finding the right balance between treating each other as teammates and kin, and for much of Tuesday night, their interactions looked no different from those of any teammate duo. They high-fived after the singing of the national anthem before tipoff, and after LeBron played the game’s first five minutes, he took a seat at the far end of the Lakers’ bench, four seats away from his son.
Though the two had already played together in the preseason, exhibition statistics don’t count in the NBA’s record, making Tuesday the official “first” lineup featuring both father and son. As the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, who is also projected this season to become its all-time leader in minutes played, the elder James was already one of the most prolific, productive athletes in the league’s history. Yet what happened Tuesday, when he overlapped with his son, was more personal.
Bronny was born only weeks before the start of his father’s second NBA season, in 2004.
“He’s his own man, and just to see him continue to grow has been a treat to be able to see,” LeBron said at the team’s shootaround, hours before tipoff Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I missed so many days while I was playing and they were in grade school and middle school and high school. I missed a lot of days. So to be able to kind of recoup some of those days now with us being together and working together, I mean, it’s pretty cool.”
He reminded reporters of the uncertainty about whether Bronny would have a chance to play in the NBA after he went into cardiac arrest during a practice at the University of Southern California in the summer of 2023. Bronny recovered in time to return to play by December and went on to average 4.8 points in his only season of college ball.
Watching his father win an NBA championship in 2016 while in Cleveland, rallying to beat Golden State in a historic comeback, perked up Bronny’s drive to make the league himself, he said. It was cemented in August, when he watched his father play for Team USA and beat Serbia at the Paris Olympics in a chaotic game.
“Both of those were, ‘Dang, this is a crazy sport. I really want to be part of this,’” Bronny said.
He was part of it as a professional for the first time Tuesday — and it happened alongside his father.
“Everything,” LeBron said, “was just great today.”
