LeBron James is taking the long-term view as son Bronny unofficially begins his NBA profession this summer time after being drafted by the Lakers within the second spherical of the 2024 draft.
“Simply get his ft moist with the NBA,” LeBron mentioned of his hopes for Bronny in an interview with ESPN. “The tempo of the sport, the pace of the sport, the physicality of the sport. However what he does within the California Basic and Summer time League, it doesn’t matter if he performs effectively, and it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t play effectively. I simply need him to proceed to develop, practices, movie periods, his particular person exercises.”
There could also be extra eyes on Bronny on this 12 months’s Summer time League than some other second-round decide, stemming from who his father is.
Some have questioned the decide and whether or not the 19-year-old — who underwhelmed at USC following a cardiac arrest incident final summer time main into his freshman 12 months — deserved to be drafted.
The Lakers considered Bronny worthy of the fifty fifth general decide, which actually didn’t damage their probabilities of retaining LeBron.
LeBron later agreed to a two-year, $101.35 million deal to remain in Los Angeles.
Now that he’s a professional, Bronny may have his probability to show his standing amongst his friends this summer time and present if he’s probably prepared to assist as a rookie.
Bronny made his skilled debut Saturday within the California Basic, scoring 4 factors on 2-of-9 capturing, together with two rebounds, two assists and one steal in 22 minutes.
LeBron, whereas getting ready for the Olympics, watched Bronny’s first basket, a layup, on his telephone and proudly commented: “C’mon, man, that’s robust.”
“The environment, it was greater than I anticipated,” Bronny mentioned after Saturday’s 108-94 loss to the Kings, in keeping with the Related Press. “It’s an enormous recreation for me, however I didn’t know the folks of Golden State would come and rep for me, in order that was fairly good to see.”
He added: “Taking a look at my errors and searching on the issues I did proper is de facto good for me. But additionally simply recreation by recreation rising that consolation in my enjoying my recreation, I really feel like that’s an enormous a part of why I come out right here and get these reps in.”
Bronny missed Sunday’s recreation, the second of a back-to-back, resulting from hint swelling in his left knee, in keeping with ESPN.
The Lakers subsequent play within the California Basic on Wednesday in opposition to the Warmth earlier than the Summer time League begins Friday in Las Vegas.
“You’ll be able to’t take something stat-wise from the California Basic and summer time league and convey it to as soon as the season begins. So the one factor that issues is him getting higher and stacking days,” LeBron mentioned, per ESPN.
“He missed an enormous a part of the season final 12 months due to the incident lower than a 12 months in the past. So he’s behind so far as the place he would have been if he would’ve performed the total season clearly. However I believe day by day he mentioned he’s getting higher and higher day by day, so day by day, each observe, each movie session he looks like he’s getting higher and higher and that’s the one factor that issues.”
