The Los Angeles Lakers opened their season on Tuesday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves in a nationally televised game.
Although the Lakers managed to secure the win, the game itself almost seemed to take a backseat to the drama surrounding the family of Lakers star LeBron James. LeBron’s son, Bronny, was drafted by the Lakers in the second round of the NBA draft, and the two became the first father and son duo to share the floor in an NBA game when Bronny checked in off the bench.
LeBron James.
Bronny James.The first father-son duo to play together in the NBA! pic.twitter.com/naadFLoPmh
— NBA (@NBA) October 23, 2024
Unfortunately, that’s where the feel-good story ends.
The younger James saw only three minutes of game action after missing both of his shots in the game. While rookies are known to have struggles upon entering the league, many have called into question whether Bronny even deserves to be in the NBA, or if he is a blatant result of nepotism.
The performance didn’t do much to quell concerns, but then neither did his preseason performances. At one point in the preseason, Bronny was almost historically bad on the floor.
“Through three preseason games, Bronny James has the worst plus/minus of all 494 players to log exhibition minutes thus far,” Sporting News tweeted at the time.
“It genuinely sounds like hell to be a 20 year old kid on your nba legend dad’s team as a pure nepotism draft pick and for everyone to know it and be treated like a make a wish kid,” one fan said on Twitter after Bronny’s debut.
Hopefully, Bronny can make a name for himself outside of being LeBron’s son, but it doesn’t look as if that’s how the story will end.
