SAN FRANCISCO — As soon as that second-quarter layup went in and he lastly had his first NBA factors after a trio of misses, Bronny James may exhale and all the things started to decelerate.
He hardly expects to be excellent at this early stage of his skilled profession, and each contact and possession will present a possibility for progress and studying.
He positive felt the love and assist Saturday, even enjoying within the Bay Space dominated by Stephen Curry and the Warriors.
“The ambiance, it was greater than I anticipated,” a grinning James mentioned. “It is a huge sport for me, however I did not know the individuals of Golden State would come and rep for me, in order that was fairly good to see.”
Outsized headphones on his ears and wearing full Lakers gold as he equipped for his NBA Summer time League debut Saturday, the rookie appeared a lot like his well-known father, LeBron, it brought about some at Chase Middle to do a double-take.
Right down to their acquainted mannerisms, facial expressions and the way in which they run or shuffle again on protection. Bronny James took his place within the beginning lineup for the Los Angeles Lakers and his skilled profession was formally underway, with loads of scouts within the constructing to witness it as he wore jersey No. 9 — to not be confused together with his dad’s former 6 uniform he sported earlier than switching to 23.
“Each first sport that I step on the subsequent stage there’s at all times some butterflies in my abdomen, however as quickly because the ball suggestions and we go a pair occasions down all of it goes away and I am simply enjoying basketball,” he mentioned. “It is at all times going to be there, however I am going to get via it.”
The youthful James wound up 2-for-9 for 4 factors, lacking all three of his 3s, with a pair of assists, two rebounds and a steal in slightly below 22 minutes of court docket time — 21:43 to be precise — because the Lakers misplaced 108-94 to the Sacramento Kings.
James missed his preliminary two photographs whereas enjoying practically six minutes in his first motion — grabbing a defensive rebound 1 minute, 20 seconds into the sport, then lacking a 21-foot leap shot moments later. He got here up brief on a 26-foot 3-point strive on the 4:23 mark of the opening quarter earlier than getting a breather.
There have been cheers and a heat ovation when James returned to the court docket on the 8:17 mark of the second quarter. He was initially whistled for his first profession foul on a 3-point try by Sacramento’s Xavier Sneed on the correct wing with 7:23 remaining, and James argued briefly earlier than the play went to replay evaluation and was overturned. James missed a 3 off the entrance rim from the highest of the arc at 7:04.
Then, eventually, James scored his first NBA factors on a driving layup 5:51 earlier than halftime.
“Moments like that may sluggish the sport down for you particularly as a result of I wasn’t as productive as I needed to beforehand,” James mentioned.
He added: “I could not get the 3-ball to fall, however all of the reps, it’ll come extra easy.”
James missed a pair of free throws on the 4:43 mark of the third interval in his first journey to the road.
At one level throughout his warmup routine, the 6-foot-2 guard stood with palms on hips ready resembling one among his father. And throughout the sport, the son leaned over by the baseline 3-point nook, gripping his knees whereas ready for the offensive possession to start.
The youthful James was drafted by the Lakers with the fifty fifth total choice within the second spherical out of the College of Southern California.
He’ll get one other probability to play Sunday, when the Lakers face the Warriors, once more on the Chase Middle. Coach Dane Johnson plans to present James loads of probabilities to acclimate and achieve helpful expertise within the coming days and weeks.
“Hopefully he’ll play all of the video games, we’ll see the way it goes,” Johnson mentioned. “We will attempt to combine him and get him as many reps as we are able to. He wants extra expertise enjoying.”
Johnson applauded James’ eager court docket consciousness.
“Everyone knows he has good instincts already, so discovering the consistency inside these he’ll construct as we maintain going ahead in the summertime league and all through the approaching season,” he mentioned. “His instincts are there, we have simply acquired to maintain constructing habits.”
If all goes as deliberate, the 19-year-old James and his dad would turn out to be the primary father-son pair to play within the NBA on the identical time — and on the identical workforce no much less.
Bronny is NBA profession scoring chief LeBron’s oldest son. He survived cardiac arrest final July 24 throughout a casual workforce exercise at USC and it was later decided he had a congenital coronary heart defect. The youthful James signed a four-year contract that may pay him $7.9 million.
He’ll remind himself alongside the way in which to remain aggressive and “imagine in myself realizing I could make performs for myself and my teammates.”
” my errors and searching on the issues I did proper is de facto good for me,” James mentioned. “But additionally simply sport by sport rising that consolation in my enjoying my sport, I really feel like that is an enormous a part of why I come out right here and get these reps in.”
