{"id":21396,"date":"2024-07-04T14:54:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T13:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/?p=21396"},"modified":"2025-03-24T14:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T13:20:06","slug":"bronny-james-ready-to-play-for-lakers-alongside-his-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/bronny-james-ready-to-play-for-lakers-alongside-his-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronny James ready to play for Lakers alongside his father"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bronny James says the chance to play professionally alongside his father LeBron James had no role in his choice to join the NBA<\/a> draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that he has been chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, Bronny says he can still deal with all the extra attention and expectations as the James family makes basketball history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m \u2026 trying to get my name out for myself,\u201d Bronny said Tuesday. \u201cI just want to come in and get my work in and get better every day. I never really had a thought of me going to play with my dad. That\u2019s always there to take part of, but it wasn\u2019t a main focus of mine.
\n
\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lakers formally introduced Bronny James and their first-round pick, Tennessee wing Dalton Knecht, in a news conference at their training complex. They chose home with the 55th overall pick last week, creating the potential for an NBA first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No father and son have ever played in the NBA at the same time, let alone on the same team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bronny repeated that he did not join the NBA because his 39-year-old father is still an active player.
\n
He acknowledged that he did not share his father\u2019s oft-stated dream of playing in the league together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also knew that he could not control where he was drafted, despite that he read on social media recently about the Lakers\u2019 being a nepotistic effort to keep LeBron James with them for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bronny James said he is ready for the challenges ahead of him because of \u201cstuff that \u201cstuff that (LeBron) has been telling me my whole life.
\n
Just having that work ethic, and coming in and getting your work in, and listening to your coaches and being coachable, stuff like that he\u2019s driven into my head my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He smartly answered questions about everything that he will face after jumping straight to the NBA from one short season of college basketball. He played inconsistently last winter at USC after recovering from a terrifying cardiac event in July 2023.
\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe time that I had off, I feel like I could have been perfecting my game more,\u201d Bronny said. \u201cI just feel like I\u2019ve been given the opportunity to showcase what I can really do, because I wasn\u2019t given that much of an opportunity at SC.
\n
So I\u2019m excited for what it\u2019s going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than spending another year in college, Bronny said he expects to improve his game in the Lakers\u2019 player development system new coach JJ Redick is setting up. Redick, emphasised the necessity of developing talent from within the organisation after general manager Rob Pelinka hired him last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRob and I did not give Bronny anything,\u201d Redick said. \u201cBronny has earned this through hard work. For us, prioritising player development, we view Bronny as Case Study 1, because his base level of feel, athleticism, point-of-attack defender, shooting, passing, there\u2019s a lot to like about his game. As we build out our player development program holistically, he\u2019s going to have the opportunity to be an excellent NBA player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bronny James says the chance to play professionally alongside his father LeBron James had no role in his choice to join the NBA draft. Now that he has been chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers, Bronny says he can still deal with all the extra attention and expectations as the James family makes basketball history. \u201cI\u2019m \u2026 trying to get my name out for myself,\u201d Bronny said Tuesday. \u201cI just want to come in and get my work in and get better every day. I never really had a thought of me going to play with my dad. That\u2019s always there to take part of, but it wasn\u2019t a main focus of mine. \u201d The Lakers formally introduced Bronny James and their first-round pick, Tennessee wing Dalton Knecht, in a news conference at their training complex. They chose home with the 55th overall pick last week, creating the potential for an NBA first. No father and son have ever played in the NBA at the same time, let alone on the same team. Bronny repeated that he did not join the NBA because his 39-year-old father is still an active player. He acknowledged that he did not share his father\u2019s oft-stated dream of playing in the league together. He also knew that he could not control where he was drafted, despite that he read on social media recently about the Lakers\u2019 being a nepotistic effort to keep LeBron James with them for the rest of his career. Bronny James said he is ready for the challenges ahead of him because of \u201cstuff that \u201cstuff that (LeBron) has been telling me my whole life. Just having that work ethic, and coming in and getting your work in, and listening to your coaches and being coachable, stuff like that he\u2019s driven into my head my whole life.\u201d He smartly answered questions about everything that he will face after jumping straight to the NBA from one short season of college basketball. He played inconsistently last winter at USC after recovering from a terrifying cardiac event in July 2023. \u201cThe time that I had off, I feel like I could have been perfecting my game more,\u201d Bronny said. \u201cI just feel like I\u2019ve been given the opportunity to showcase what I can really do, because I wasn\u2019t given that much of an opportunity at SC. So I\u2019m excited for what it\u2019s going to be.\u201d Rather than spending another year in college, Bronny said he expects to improve his game in the Lakers\u2019 player development system new coach JJ Redick is setting up. Redick, emphasised the necessity of developing talent from within the organisation after general manager Rob Pelinka hired him last month. \u201cRob and I did not give Bronny anything,\u201d Redick said. \u201cBronny has earned this through hard work. For us, prioritising player development, we view Bronny as Case Study 1, because his base level of feel, athleticism, point-of-attack defender, shooting, passing, there\u2019s a lot to like about his game. As we build out our player development program holistically, he\u2019s going to have the opportunity to be an excellent NBA player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,3,159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-sport-football-news","category-basketball","category-football-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBronny ready to play for Lakers - Matchplug Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bronny James says he is ready to play for the Los Angeles Lakers alongside his father LeBron James, following his draft.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/bronny-james-ready-to-play-for-lakers-alongside-his-father\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bronny ready to play for Lakers - 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