NBA opening night was all about LeBron and Bronny

Forget the game.

It was about the moment.

Twenty minutes into the Lakers’ season opener against Minnesota, with exactly four minutes left in the second quarter and LA leading by 14, the 18,997 fans at Crypto.com Arena witnessed history. LeBron James intervened in the game. Bronny James, his eldest son, checked in next to him. For the first time in the 78-year history of the NBA, father and son shared the floor.

“I totally do [felt] the energy,” Bronny said.

LeBron said: “I will never forget that moment when we sat together at the scorer’s table and checked in together. No matter how old I get, no matter how much my memory fades as I get older or whatever, I will never forget this moment.”

Even to the most cynical fan, that was cool. Minutes before check-in, TNT microphones caught LeBron giving his new teammate a pep talk. “You see the intensity, right?” James asked Bronny. “Just play carefree. Don’t worry about mistakes. Just play hard.”

And he did. Offensively, Bronny drove the transition. He battled with Joe Ingles on the other end of the floor. On an early possession, the Jameses attempted to create a father-son connection. Ingles read a cutback from Bronny and sank the play. The next moment, LeBron set up Bronny for an open three-pointer. He missed it. After 2.5 minutes of play, Bronny was substituted.

“I felt pretty good,” Bronny said. “I was a little worried when I started… that the first game when I stepped on the court was a little nerve-wracking. But as soon as I stepped on the court and walked up and down a few times, everything disappeared.”

There was definitely choreography. Bronny, a 20-year-old second-round pick, had a difficult preseason. He hadn’t earned a spot in the rotation. He hadn’t earned a place in the league. But in the hours before the season opener, word began to spread that he would play. And why not? The national television cameras were rolling. The Griffeys, the last father-son duo to share a major league pitch, were in the building. Better to make the moment happen now than in a mid-November game in Memphis.

And there were reasons, you know, Get it over with. Bronny is a project. The Lakers know it. Bronny knows. He’s a 6-foot-1 combo guard, an endangered species in today’s NBA. He has a whopping 483 minutes of college basketball experience on his resume. He shouldn’t be in Los Angeles. He was supposed to be in the South Bay, with the Lakers’ G League affiliate. He doesn’t have to sit on a bench. He needs to play minutes.

Cynics will say Bronny doesn’t deserve this opportunity. Fine. Without his famous father, James probably wouldn’t have been drafted. He certainly wouldn’t have been rewarded with a multi-year contract. But he didn’t need He had to work just as hard as he did to become an NBA contender, and he did. He didn’t need to continue playing basketball after a near-fatal heart attack in the summer of 2023… and he did. Question Bronny’s size and abilities. You can’t question his commitment.

Another thing that connects father and son. In 22 seasons, LeBron has accomplished the following: much. Four championships, four MVPs, two decades of All-Star appearances. Just last year, James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in scoring in the NBA. This moment, James said, hit differently.

“I talked about this many years ago and for the coming moment it’s pretty cool,” James said. “I don’t know if it’s really going to hit either of us for a quick minute where we can really sit back and say, ‘That was pretty crazy.’ But the moment we checked in, we still had a job to do. We didn’t try to make it a circus, we didn’t try to make it about ourselves. We wanted the team to go out and continue playing the game.”

Oh yes, that Game. The Lakers won 110-103. Anthony Davis (36 points, 16 rebounds) was dominant. Rui Hachimura (a team-high +19) was sharp. In his coaching debut, JJ Redick was up to the task. There’s still a lot of work to be done on three-point shooting (LA was 5 of 30) and the bench still needs to take a beating, but toppling a conference finalist on opening night is solid work.

“All of our guys participated,” Redick said, “and that’s really all we ask.”

Fine. There will be plenty of time to analyze the Lakers. This night was about the Jameses. The entire clan was in the building on Tuesday. Friends, family, acquaintances in the roundabout. It offered a full-circle moment. After the game, LeBron lamented all the time he’s lost with his family over the years. How playing with Bronny gave him the opportunity to get some of that back.

“I definitely noticed,” Bronny said. “It’s a lot of time we haven’t had together. But it’s just all part of what we love to do and there’s nothing we can do about it. So yeah, it’s a great feeling to do what we love to do together.”