LeBron James, left, and Bronny James of the Lakers play during the second quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
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Late in the second quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ season opener, LeBron and Bronny James stepped onto the basketball court and into the history books as the first father-son duo to play together in an NBA game, let alone on the same team.
It was a moment many years in the making.
The elder James, who was in his second NBA season when Bronny was born, began his record-tying 22nd season this week. The 39-year-old is the league’s all-time leading scorer and widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, with four NBA championships and four NBA MVP titles under his belt.
He joined the Lakers in 2018. The team drafted the younger James (full name: LeBron James Jr.) this summer as its second-round pick after he had played just one season with the University of Southern California.
The Jameses played together for the first time during a preseason game against the Phoenix Suns earlier this month, which happened to fall on Bronny’s 20th birthday. But the real record-making and fanfare came on Tuesday when the Lakers faced off against the Minnesota Timberwolves in LA.
With four minutes left in the second quarter, both Jameses substituted into the game together, shedding their warm-up jackets as the arena filled with cheers. A microphone captured their exchange on the bench moments beforehand.
“You see the intensity, right?” LeBron asked, prompting nods from Bronny. “Just play care-free, though. Don’t worry about mistakes, just go out there and play hard.”
The two shared the court for about 2 ½ minutes, which was Bronny’s only playing time of the night. He missed two shot attempts but had one rebound, while his father added 16 points, five rebounds and four assists.
The Lakers went on to win 110-103, LeBron’s first opening-night win in all his years on the team. But it was those few minutes of shared playing time that meant the most.
“It’s always been family over everything. I’ve lost a lot of time because of this league and committing to this league, being on the road at times and missing a lot of [Bronny’s] things, Bryce’s things and Zhuri’s things,” LeBron said in a post-game interview, referring to his kids. “To be able to have this moment where I’m working still and I can work alongside my son is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever gotten from the man above, and I’m gonna take full advantage of it.”
Bronny said checking in at the scorer’s table with his dad was a “crazy moment I’ll never forget,” adding, “I’m just extremely grateful for everything.”
Bronny’s debut wasn’t without some playful hazing: Earlier in the day, his dad tweeted out a Nike ad in which he fills his son’s car with cereal, then calls out “Hey rook! You better not be late,” and tells him to clean up before driving away from the mess.
“Yo, are you serious?” Bronny replies, adding, “You’re too old for this.”
In a sweet coincidence, Tuesday was also the 10th birthday of LeBron’s daughter (and Bronny’s sister) Zhuri, who was in attendance for the game. LeBron later said that made the day all the more special.
“Everything was just great today,” he said. “From the moment I woke up, I saw my daughter before she went to school. Went to work, saw my son at work. Get to the game and just everything, man. The whole family. It was a great moment.”
Only a handful of other father-son duos have been teammates in North American pro sports
LeBron James, Ken Griffey Sr., Bronny James and Ken Griffey Jr. pose for a photo on Tuesday, when the Jameses became the first father-son pair to play together in the NBA. The Griffeys hold that same distinction in the MLB.
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Also watching — and filming excitedly — from the stands on Tuesday were Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., the first father-son duo to play together in the MLB. They played for the Seattle Mariners in 1990 and 1991.
“It’s a big deal for my dad and I to be there,” Griffey Jr. told The Road to Cooperstown podcast earlier this week. “We made history, now we get to watch history.”
The Jameses are joining a very short list of father-son duos who have played together in major American sports.
Hockey great Gordie Howe played with his sons Mark and Marty for the WHA’s Houston Aeros in 1973-1974 and the NHL’s Hartford Whalers in the 1979-1980 season.
In August 2001, baseball players Tim Raines Sr. and Tim Raines Jr. became the first father-son duo to play against each other in a regular season professional game when the Triple-A International League’s Ottawa Lynx played the Rochester Red Wings.
Baltimore Orioles left fielder Tim Raines Sr. poses with his son and teammate, center fielder Tim Raines Jr., before an October 2001 game.
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That October, a series of events — including a scheduling delay after 9/11, injuries and a temporary trade by managers who knew of Raines Sr.’s desire to play with his son — led to both Raineses playing for the Baltimore Orioles during the last week of the season.
They played in four games together, starting together in the outfield in two of them.
“I had talked publicly for years about how I wanted to stick around long enough to play at the same time as Tim Jr.,” Raines Sr. — who retired after the 2002 season — wrote in his 2017 autobiography Rock Solid. “It never really occurred to me that we would ever have an opportunity to play on the same team.”
Raines Sr. welcomed the Jameses to that club in a tweet on Wednesday morning.
“It was an absolute joy to play with my son,” he wrote. “Congratulations to [LeBron and Bronny] on making NBA history and having that special moment together.”
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