NBA
Bronny James scores first career points for Lakers in Cleveland
Bronny James is on the board.
The son of LeBron James scored his first NBA points on Wednesday night during the Lakers’ 134-110 loss to the Cavaliers in Cleveland, where his father spent 11 seasons.
With just over two minutes left in the contest and LeBron watching from the bench, Bronny dribbled inside the three-point line before defender Jaylon Tyson cut him off from going to the basket.
Bronny would pull back and hit a fadeaway mid-range shot for his first regular season field goal.
As the crowd erupted, Bronny wasn’t sure how to react.
“It was insane,” he said. “Much more than I anticipated for sure. It’s all love. It was a nice moment. The chants really got me. I was straight faced, but I felt it and it felt pretty good, especially coming from here.”
With the game out of hand, Bronny entered the game with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter in his second NBA game.
In five minutes played, Bronny scored two points on 1-of-2 from the field, missing a 3-pointer, with two assists and a steal.
“To see him get his first NBA basket in this arena, where he grew up not too far away from here, that’s an unbelievable moment,” LeBron said. “Unbelievable moment for him, and for our family it’s just pretty cool to be a part of it.”
The Lakers were outscored by two points with him on the court in garbage time.
It may end up being one of the last NBA appearances for Bronny for a while.
After the Lakers current road trip, which runs through Nov. 6, Bronny might start splitting time between the NBA roster and the franchise’s G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, according to ESPN.
Bronny’s latest appearances comes just over a week after he and LeBron became the first father-son duo to appear in an NBA game together.
In that game, the 20-year-old USC product pulled down a rebound but didn’t score in three minutes of action.
His first NBA bucket comes after Bronny struggled during the preseason, scoring just eight points on 4-of-20 shooting through four games before dropping 17 points in the Lakers’ final preseason game.
Bronny was drafted in the second round (No. 55 overall) by the Lakers in the 2024 draft.
— with AP