LeBron James and Bronny James are teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers this season, marking the first time a father-son duo has ever played together in the NBA. It’s already getting weird before the games start counting for real.
Bronny James’ flagrant foul immediately turned LeBron into a basketball dad
LeBron James needed an explanation from the refs after Bronny was called for a flagrant foul in NBA preseason.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
LeBron Sr. was held out of the Lakers’ penultimate preseason game on Thursday night, but LeBron Jr. had a rotation spot off the bench. Bronny played 17 minutes and finished with four points and two rebounds on 2-of-4 shooting. He was a plus-17 in the game! Bronny still looks far away from being a rotational caliber player, but these reps in the preseason are meaningful for his development.
In the fourth quarter of a close game with the Phoenix Suns, James Jr. chased Suns’ forward Jalen Bridges down the court on a fastbreak attempt. Bronny appeared to slightly undercut him in the air while making no play on the ball. Bridges crashed to the ground hard, and the refs reviewed the play. Ultimately, Bronny was given a flagrant foul.
After the refs announced the flagrant, LeBron James Sr. walked to the officials and made sure he got a full explanation. Watch the video here, via NBA Reddit.
LeBron clearly has so much love for his son, and in this moment was being a protective parent. The refs got the call right, so James Sr. doesn’t really have anything to argue about. He probably pulled Bronny over after the game and went over how to defend in transition situations like this one.
Any LeBron and Bronny interaction is going to get a lot of attention this year. New head coach J.J. Redick has already said he’ll play the two together to make NBA history early in the season. The assumption is that Bronny will move down the G League sooner rather than later, and won’t figure into the Lakers rotation this season.
This moment is just another sign that this season with LeBron and Bronny is going to be scrutinized to a wild degree. The internet agrees:
The real headline for the Lakers in this game was the electric play of their other rookie, first-round pick Dalton Knecht. The former Tennessee wing finished with 35 points on 8-of-13 shooting from three-point range. He hit the shot to force overtime, and at one point scored 20 straight points.
This Lakers season is going to be as fascinating as ever.
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