By Alex Andreev, Brendan Marks and Jovan Buha
LeBron James didn’t wait to soak in Wednesday night’s win over the Dallas Mavericks. Instead, the Lakers star hurried to the dressing room at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles to catch his son Brony play in USC’s game against Arizona.
LeBron appeared distracted by the Trojans’ game broadcast as he took questions from reporters in the locker room after the Lakers’ 127-110 win, punctuating his answers with screen calls such as “pull it”, “shoot” and “good pass”.
James finished with 25 points behind D’Angelo Russell’s 29 and Anthony Davis’ 28. He also added eight rebounds and eight assists on Wednesday as Los Angles improved to 21-21.
Broney, a freshman, had one of his best games of the season with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds. He is averaging 5.8 points, 1.9 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 10 games. The McDonald’s All-American guard made his college debut — his first since suffering a cardiac arrest in July — in an overtime loss at Long Beach State last month with LeBron sitting courtside.
The Trojans (8-10) fell to the Wildcats (13-4) 82-67 on Wednesday, with Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant in the game in Tucson, Arizona.
LeBron should be able to catch USC’s next game without overlapping contests. USC plays Arizona State on Saturday at 2:00 PM ET in Tempe, Arizona. The Lakers host the Brooklyn Nets on Friday at 10:30 PM ET, followed by the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday at 10:00 PM ET.
What did Broney look like 10 games into his season?
This isn’t new information, but it’s worth mentioning whenever we discuss basketball player Bronie James: The fact that he’s playing at all right now — after suffering a cardiac arrest during practice in July — is borderline miraculous, and we’re all for it. lucky the child is fine.
As for how he’s doing as a college basketball player so far? Not surprisingly, he is still a work in progress. USC has been far worse than expected — Wednesday’s loss to Arizona, the team’s third in a row, dropped the Trojans to 8-10 this season — and recent injuries have forced James into a bigger role. He started USC’s last two games, posting season highs in minutes both nights. The more time he gets, the more comfortable you see him on the court; he initiated much of USC’s offense last night, finishing with a season-best six assists in various actions. (He had six combined assists in USC’s previous four games.) Against the Wildcats, however, he was hitting misses, driving and throwing shots to teammates in the dunk spot, kicking for open 3s and generally displaying the high IQ I’d expect from the son of LeBron James. This was a great example of James’ athleticism on a drive from the baseline and then vision to find his teammate when the defense collapsed:
But at this point — despite what social media promo videos would have you believe — James is still a relatively raw prospect. His athleticism and IQ, unsurprisingly, are ahead of his skills. He had 11 points against Arizona on 5-of-11 shooting, but nine of those came in the first half, and he also had five turnovers to go along with the aforementioned six assists. He’s a good player — if he weren’t LeBron’s son, we’d still be talking about him as a developmental prospect, a longer-term project — but the flashes now are mostly just that. Still, it was encouraging to see him do things like that: come off the screen, get to the rim and nail an easy, contested fadeaway.
Brony isn’t, as his father says, ready to play for the Lakers today, but he’s an intriguing prospect … just longer term. Hopefully the basketball community and his famous father will be patient as Brony continues to develop into the player he can be. — Brendan Marks, College Basketball Staff Writer
In the Lakers locker room as LeBron watched Brony
LeBron and Anthony Davis usually talk to the media in front of their lockers, which are right next to each other in the center of the Lakers’ locker room. James will usually speak first, followed by Davis.
But after running back to the locker room to catch the second half of the USC-Arizona game, James made it clear that watching his son was a priority.
“Get the hell out of here,” James passionately told the media as they entered the locker room. “Talk to the AD first.”
As Davis spoke to the throng of media, James sat animatedly offering commentary on Broney’s play, USC’s offense and officiating.
For the entire six minutes James spoke to the media, his eyes were glued to the television in the locker room. Several times he stopped mid-answer to address what was happening in the game.
“Pull it,” James said at one point. “I’m sorry. Pull it. Shoot him. Ooh, nice pass. Get the ball, man. That’s why you shoot it.
James then shared an insight into why the viewing process was so difficult for him.
“Watching college basketball by yourself is tough,” James said. “Then he added my son in there, it’s even worse. It’s hard to watch.”
When asked a follow-up question, James offered a critique of college basketball’s amateur style of play.
“Yes, I’m a father, but I also love the game of basketball,” James said. “And college basketball…it’s just…it’s like 10 people on the court at the same time. It’s very hard to watch. But USC is a good, great program. Arizona is a great program. So you get to watch them play basketball, it’s good.”
After his media presence ended, James quickly showered, dressed and continued to watch from his locker, offering further commentary until he exited the locker room after the game was decided. — Jovan Buha, Lakers senior writer
Required reading
(Photo: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
