LeBron James isn’t sweating the sub-par numbers his eldest son, Bronny James, put up in his NBA Summer League debut, and he doesn’t believe anyone else should either.
Bronny James took the court for the first time as a professional during the California Classic on Saturday, July 7. The younger James finished the game against the Sacramento Kings summer squad with 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal in 22 minutes of court time. The Lakers fell to the Kings by a score of 108-94.
The elder James — who is in Las Vegas preparing with Team USA for the Olympics in Paris, which begin later this month — spoke to media members about his son’s performance and insisted that any statistic-centric, critical take by the doubters is erroneous.
“You can’t take anything, as far as stat-wise, from [the] California Classic and Summer League and bring it once the season starts,” LeBron James said. “The only thing that matters is him getting better and stacking days. He missed a big part of the season last year because of the incident less than a year ago. He’s behind as far as where he would have been if he played the full season. Everyday, every practice, every film session he feels like he’s getting better and better. That’s the only thing that matters.”
Bronny James Calm, Collected Following Struggles During NBA Debut
Getty Bronny James of the Los Angeles Lakers.
For his part, Bronny James had a calm demeanor and reasonable perspective after his first time on an NBA court.
“The atmosphere,” he said after a reporter asked him about the biggest surprise of the experience, per ESPN. “It was more than I expected. I mean, it’s a big game for me, but I didn’t know if people from Golden State would come and rep for me. So that was pretty nice to see.”
Fans greeted Bronny James with cheers in at Chase Center in San Francisco, the home of the Golden State Warriors and the venue where the game took place.
James missed his first three shot attempts of the contest, going just 2-for-9 from the field for the game. However, he came alive in the second quarter by forcing a turnover that eventually resulted in a bucket for Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, he scored the first points of his career on a layup after driving through the lane and finishing at the basket.
“Moments like that can slow it down,” James told media members following the game. “Slow the game down for you. Especially because I wasn’t as productive as I wanted … beforehand.”
Bronny James Will Have Plenty of Chances to Find Stride With Lakers This Summer
Getty Bronny James (left) and head coach JJ Redick (right) of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Bronny James, who won’t turn 20 years old until October, began taking criticism the moment the Lakers drafted him No. 55 overall in late June.
Accusations of nepotism followed after James Jr. averaged just 4.8 points, 2.8 rebound and 2.1 assists in 19.3 minutes per game for the USC Trojans during his sole season of collegiate basketball at the NCAA level. He caught more criticism after signing a four-year deal with the Lakers for just shy of $8 million in total.
But Bronny James has handled the pressure with an even keel so far, and will have plenty of opportunities to continue improving over the summer months. The Lakers summer squad play two more games in the California Classic, one against the Warriors on Sunday and another against the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
After that, Bronny James and the rest of his teammates well head to Las Vegas themselves for the league-wide version of Summer League.
Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group's family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible
