Biologically speaking, the teenage brain is a train wreck. First, it is low in myelin, the coating that allows different regions to communicate with each other. Meanwhile, the prefrontal cortex is developing at breakneck speed, so things that a child once took for granted—like the idea that their parents know what they’re talking about—suddenly seem they are ripe for revaluation. So, in addition to acting on every similar impulse, a teenager is programmed to break away from his parents. This is natural and healthy, but it doesn’t make it any easier for a parent – even a rich and successful one, like LeBron James.
I mention this because James now has two teenage sons and, as with all parents who reach this point, the changes can be scary. “Hell, yeah, it’s bittersweet to see your kids grow into themselves,” he said when I caught up with him this summer in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. At the time, James was sitting with his sons Bronny, 17, and Bryce, 15, and we were commiserating about brain chemistry and independence and all the rest. (I have two teenage daughters myself.) James went on to talk about his own experience of leaving his mom, and how he now tries to focus on the most important things for his kids, “because it’s hard as hell find happiness in this. the world we were introduced to.”
While it’s impossible for any of us to judge the happiness of another, it seems that at 37 and entering his 20th year of pro basketball, James has done as much as anyone to achieve that ideal. . He is a statesman and advocate; to be a billionaire; plowed money, time and infrastructure back into his hometown; raised childhood friends; he brought titles to every team he played for; he resisted the ravages of time; and, together with his wife, Savannah, raised three children who seem remarkably normal, all things considered.
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Now James is entering the next phase of his career, and his life, just as his eldest son prepares to embark on his own journey into adulthood. On the same subject : ‘Apocalypse Now: Final Cut’, ‘Basic Instinct’ In Lineup As Streamer Studiocanal Presents Launches On Prime Video. Traditionally, this is where parent and child part ways, one retreating from the spotlight and the other stepping into it.
But James has something else in mind. He aims to stay in the NBA long enough to overlap with Bronny, who is entering his senior year of high school. If they pull it off, it would make them the first father-son duo to play together in an NBA game, and only the fourth such pair in the four major US men’s sports (after Gordie played with Mark and Marty Howe in the NHL; and Ken Griffey and Tim Raines played with their sons in MLB).
When James first opened up about the plan in February, telling The Athletic that “my last year will be played with my son” and that “it’s not about the money at that point,” the NBA world went wild. . What did this mean for LeBron? For the Lakers? For league balance?
Of course, this scenario rests on a series of assumptions, including that Bronny, a 6′ 2″ combo guard who is generally ranked in the top 50 of his class, will be good enough to make it to the NBA. He wants to play basketball play for a living, which is assumed but not yet stated.
Then there are the bigger, 10,000-foot questions, like: How do you feel about a father putting public expectations on his son? And: After all this, what if Bronny doesn’t make the league? Or: What if he does, but mainly because of his father’s influence? What makes this a good story – supportive dad helps son achieve his dreams – or a case of superstar nepotism?
Anyway, many people joined in, from many angles, and by the time I caught up with the family in July, at a weekend basketball tournament, Bronny, whose every scrimmage and social media post was already circulating itself, having moved even further. into the public eye and the rest of us were left wondering what grand scheme LeBron was up to, if any.
Twenty years ago, LeBron was the teenager who moved the nation. After St. Vincent-St. Mary High to consecutive state titles that featured him on the cover of Sports Illustrated under the tagline THE CHOSEN ONE. The story quotes Danny Ainge as saying that James would go first in the NBA draft, as a junior.
That year he met Savannah Brinson, who played softball at Buchtel, a rival high school, and knew very little about the basketball phenomenon. A group hanging out at Applebee’s turned into Outback Steakhouse, and the two stayed connected through everything afterward: the Cavs years, The Decision, the titles in Miami. In 2004, she gave birth to a boy, LeBron James Jr., and Bryce Maximus three years later. In ’13, the couple got married. A year later, Zhuri Nova came.
Throughout their lives, LeBron and Savannah have maintained ties to Akron. They raised the boys nearby, and attended Bronny – who has not really gone with LeBron Jr. – on Old Path School. Like all parents, they set certain rules. No cell phones until you’re 13. No Instagram until 14. No playing football, for safety reasons. Savannah says they tried to be “very normal in an unusual situation, if that makes sense.” They also had to be vigilant and understand that “it’s a big, wide world out there, and we have to do our part to defend.”
Bronny first entered the public consciousness in the fourth grade, playing with his AAU team. He zips around the court, hoisting threes and looking a bit like a miniature version of his father. By 11, ESPN reported that he had scholarship offers from Kentucky and Duke. . . to classify LeBron as, what the hell, the child only 11?
Long before his kids were doing the prep show, LeBron St. V’s to LA and offered Mater Dei Prep on national television.
John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated
The rest of it, however, LeBron love. He coached. He cheered. He joined the boys for layup lines, thundering home dunks as they lofted up underhand runners. When Bronny dropped one of the first dunks of his game, at the age of 14, Dad disappeared onto the court from his baseline seat, focusing on his parents’ pride. After his team’s salute, James ran to the floor for a celebratory hip bump, doing so so aggressively that he lost his shoe in the process. At the time, he drew fire from some critics, who labeled him an over-the-top sports dad run amok. (LEBRON JAMES WENT BONCERS, read one headline.) Others, however, saw goofy, paternal joy from a man who was no relation to his own father. (LeBron took his mother’s last name Gloria.)
Either way, the attention kept coming. “It was like the Beatles,” says Brook Cupps, whose son, Gabe, joined Bronny on AAU’s Blue Chips in fifth grade. Gabe was from a small farming town, but suddenly his games were on YouTube, when an analyst broke down his prepubescent skills. “It was something I was never exposed to,” he says. “All that pressure to perform.”
Eventually Gabe adjusted and in high school he saw it as a positive — “like he was swinging a heavy bat all the time,” as his father puts it. But Gabe’s experience was inherently different from that of his backcourt teammate, because he was on the edge of the spotlight. And Bronny? The recruiting website ar3.com recently declared him “the most famous high school basketball player of all time.”
In fact, when Bronny joined Instagram, in 2019, he gathered a million followers in less than 48 hours without really doing anything other than being Bronny. It’s now up to 6.4 million, despite only posting 17 times. If he decides to go to college – we’ll get to that later – his endorsement deals under the new NIL laws will likely break records. The industry estimates that the peg will be worth over $6 million per year.
This fall, Bronny will play his senior season at Sierra Canyon School in Los Angeles, where the family moved after LeBron signed with the Lakers in 2018. He will be joined by Bryce, a sophomore. The weekend I visit, they are all returning to Ohio for The Battle, a youth basketball exhibition at St. V’s contain some of the best prospects. In reality, though, it’s a James family event. Bronny will play with the Blue Chips in the U-17 division – the tournament format allows him to reunite with his old team – and Bryce with Strive for Greatness, LeBron’s U-16 squad.
For the boys, it’s a chance to hang with teammates, show off the court and, for Bronny in particular, raise his profile. For LeBron, it’s more complicated.
The father looks at his two sons. They are wilting. “Hey, we need some air in here.”
Bronny’s face is blocked by an assistant holding a tiny fan that barely flutters against the sweltering heat.
It is 3:30 p.m. on the Friday before the competition, half an hour into a photo session in the empty gym of St. V in downtown Akron. And it’s such an anniversary: 20 years since that first IR cover. Today, LeBron chose to wear a cropped T-shirt with a print of that edition.
Bryce, LeBron and Bronny photographed for SI at St. Vincent-St. Mary High in Akron, on July 1 – just as free agency began.
Jeffery A. Salter/Sports Illustrated
Currently, Bronny and Bryce are letting in outfits planned by their stylist. Green shorts match green bleachers, which match shoes with a green clutch. But the sweat is getting in the way. LeBron grimaces. One of James’s team—there are, by my count, 11 people on hand, including PR reps, the head of his establishment and a makeup artist—brings an industrial-sized black fan. Torrent releases fire air.
By now, Bronny is used to posing, and cycles through different facial expressions. Bryce, who is gangly and wears glasses, looks more nervous, not sure what to do with his long arms. Return them? Hang them by his side? He shook them out between touches.
Gloria says a lot of her son’s parenting is driven by the absence in his own life—”he was always sure he’d never be [that] kind of father,” she says—and it shows. All afternoon, LeBron is cautious. He picks a piece of lint off Bryce’s shirt. He imagines touching. Children watch, then imitate.
When a minute comes down, LeBron is on the move. He catches a ball and shows a move at the top of the key, using a lighting rig as a defender – behind the goal, spin move, feint, then attack with a left lay, telling all the time. He grabs a yellow legal pad and starts scribbling notes. (He scans righty but writes left-handed.)
Meanwhile, the dynamic of the series evolves. One day earlier, on June 30, Kevin Durant demanded a trade, then the NBA free agent window opened and all hell broke loose. Now, dominoes are falling. During the afternoon, the Jazz traded Rudy Gobert to the Timberwolves for a huge outing. Every few minutes another speculation emerges about Durant or Kyrie Irving, who is expected to join James in LA (It was four years ago this weekend that James himself signed with the Lakers.)
One time, LeBron may have been glued to his phone. But those who know him feel a change – he thinks big picture, looking outside the game. So, at least for the moment, dad things come first. The notes he was writing all evening? They are not trade scenarios but drills for the Blue Chips practice he will hold later this evening.
Currently, the three to the far basket, each with a ball, and fall into an easy rhythm: One shoots; the others mimic. They could be any dad and kids at the Y, only this dad is hitting bounce shots over the boards from out of bounds. Relaxed lefty jumpers give way to empty spinners and volleyball shots and, finally, dunk attempts. Bryce goes, on one leg, on a one-hander cage. Bronny explodes with a two-handed, one-step jam. Then LeBron, with the alpha-dad move, brings the full force of his 250 pounds crashing down on the rim, hanging for a moment. “Okay, we are good,” he says, offering to the boys. Throughout life, his personal videographer films, preserving the kind of moments he wishes one had captured from his own childhood.
LeBron’s upbringing is well described: he and Gloria going off on their own, moving from couch to couch until she landed a $22-a-month apartment. Relative stability followed by a tough reputation. Gloria says she wasn’t perfect, but she tried. She repeated certain mantras, “like being humble and being positive and being appreciative of things and not letting circumstances determine who you are or where you go in life,” she says. She also tried to zone him for what might come. “One thing I said a lot was ‘Be careful what you wish for.'”
Bryce and Bronny go alone under dad’s watchful eye.
David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated
You will never know the situation another parent is facing. The swirl of influences and factors. Every situation is different. But for the most part this plays out on a micro scale. Not so James. He and Savannah must parent in front of the world, even more than most celebrities. Because, really, how many people are as globally recognizable as LeBron? A dozen? Maybe less?
So far, the James family has taken a brand new approach, both overtly public and very private. LeBron posts Instagram videos of the family: Taco Tuesdays, dad and son shooting hoops in the driveway, dance parties, birthdays. He tweets out the highlights of the boys, with all enthusiasm. In 2019 cameras began following Bronny and his Sierra Canyon teammates for Top Class, an Amazon documentary series. Visibility was involved even with that choice of schools; Sierra Canyon holds an annual media day, appears on ESPN and travels for international exhibition tours. Bronny has already spent a good part of his life in front of a camera.
At the same time, LeBron keeps that exposure. He has ultimate creative control over Top Class, which is produced by his media company, Unbroken. Same with The Shop, his roundtable talk show on YouTube. As Gloria puts it, LeBron and Savannah act as the “buffer” between the kids and fame.
The concept makes sense: If the media and the public are going to create an image for your family, rather than watching it have fun, why not take control? “That’s why I started without a break,” says James. “I got sick and tired of the media changing the narrative or choosing their own narrative about what I was doing.”
It is, according to him, a head start he can give his children. “I know [they’re] under a lot of pressure.” But Bronny also has an ancillary benefit—one unavailable to previous generations: the value of the brand he’s establishing. He could erode that NIL money or leverage his name to push other passions, like video games. (He’s already partnered with FaZe Clan, one of the biggest names in sports.) He could even follow the path of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, break out and start his own empire.
After the photo shoot we gather at a table in the St. V cafeteria to talk. LeBron sits between Bronny and Bryce. I’m told it’s Bryce’s first interview, and one of Bronny’s first actual sit-downs. The boys are polite and well-spoken but reluctant. At some questions they scrunch up their face or purse their lips; one will look at the other brother, or at Dad. Like when I ask about her mother and her role as a parent.
LeBron jumps in, laughing. “Are you afraid of Mom?!”
Bronny respects and looks at her questioner; if he’s struggling with teenage independence, he’s pretty good at hiding it. It addresses direct issues succinctly. So: Yes, he’s sticking to hoops. “I was born into it, so I feel like the path has already been chosen,” he says. “But my dad is cool enough to let me go whatever path I want if I didn’t want to do basketball. But I think it’s going to be basketball, for sure.” (Bryce says he thinks it’s his too, though with less conviction.
And yes, Bronny says he hopes to play in the NBA, but he’s not counting on it. “I’ll see what happens. I’m going to play basketball. If I go [that] path, that’s what it is.” If the NBA doesn’t pan out, “I’m great.”
Bronny is reserved in public, less so around peers. He loves gaming and snowboarding and filming stunts and dance moves. He now dates and has a license. His father considers him a “good driver”, prompting 7-year-old Zhuri, who is listening to the conversation from a nearby seat she keeps closer to her, to announce, “I’m a cyclist I’m sorry!” (Her parents say she has shown no interest in playing basketball.)
Bronny doesn’t use the nickname given to him, but his thunking screams LeBron Jr.
David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated
Bronny says he tried to move away from the “Junior” designation early on. “I will always get nicknames. Bronny just stuck with me. But I also want to build my own narrative and take my own path and not have the same LeBron LeBron path.”
During our conversation, LeBron listens, offers and sometimes steps in. I get the impression that he has two goals. First, give the boys experience of an external interview, but with Dad present – bowling like the bumpers up. Second, like any parent, James wants to shape the process. He knows his kids are watching everything he says and how he says it. After a while he feels as if he is speaking to them as much as to me, reinforcing the ideals of the family.
LeBron and Savannah make a point to do this. During a recent vacation to Turks and Caicos they sat around the table at night, discussing the state of the world and translating it to the boys’ circumstances. LeBron worries about everyday challenges – like if his sons are ever pulled on the road. “You can’t have any expectations because you are . . . LeBron’s son,” he says at St. V’s. He looks at Bronny. “You have to be even more careful, because you don’t know. And that’s a scary thing, being a Black father with a kid who drives. . . . . These kids are well known, and they’re leaving home, and [our] daughters are at school.” The only time he feels 100% safe, he says, is when his children are at home.
So they draw the circle tighter. LeBron uses the metaphor of a support rope for a mountain climber. “We all know we can climb it alone, but it’s so much easier when you do it together. I’m young enough to know a lot of what they’re going through, but I’m also smart enough to stay out of some of it. It’s not my job to be in their business all the time.”
It continues. “We all support each other. We want each other to be great. It’s my job to send it back to him”—he washes at Bronny—“and send it to his little brother, his little sister’s little brother.”
Seen this way, perhaps James’s declaration of playing with Bronny is just another carabiner in the support rope – part of a larger coordinated plan they cooked up.
Actually, no. A turn out that came as a surprise to everyone. Bronny says he didn’t hear about the idea until his dad said it publicly, although he thinks it’s “pretty cool”. (Savannah wasn’t expecting it either. “No, we haven’t talked about it,” she says when we speak separately. “I mean, yes, because obviously you ask the boys what they want to be when they’re 10, 11 years old. year old. I want to be in the NBA. And I think that’s just something that was close to LeBron’s heart.”)
James confirms all this. No, he didn’t discuss it. “We don’t even talk much about the future. I put it on the air because I like to talk to the basketball gods out there and see if things can come to fruition. I always set goals in my career, I talked to the basketball gods, and they all listened. I hope they can listen to this last one too.”
Among the many milestones of his career, this one would be singular. Many NBA players have NBA sons. Rick Barry produced by. In fact, we’re in the golden age of juniors right now, the league overflowing with Trent and Hardaways and Sabonises. The Warriors’ title team alone had four second-generation players: Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton II.
LeBron is not only a living example of how to play ball, he is Bronny’s coach from time to time, here helping the Blue Chips.
David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated
But while some dads have gotten into fights with their kids – like when Dell Curry, as Charlotte’s analyst, called Steph and Seth’s games; or when Doc Rivers coached his son Austin, with the Clippers – none of them played together, for all the reasons you’d expect: longevity and predilection, luck, and the pure math. James has a realistic shot, though.
When I add details about it, it closes the issue. “I like to throw things out on the airwaves, but I’m not one [to say] what’s going to happen in the next two or three years. I’m a visionary, but I’m also a man who lives in the moment.”
Still, the wheels are already turning. The free agency deals and trades swirling around us? “I would definitely be looking at who got a first-round pick in 2024, 2025, things like that; 2026, ’27. I pay attention to that kind of stuff.”
I do the math—2027?—and nod at Bryce. “Any chance you’d stick around for this guy too?”
LeBron smile. “I feel like I could play for a long time. So it’s all up to my body, but more importantly, my mind. If my mind can stay sharp, fresh and motivated, the sky is not the limit for me. I can go further than that. But we’ll see.”
It is enough to imagine: LeBron at 43, playing in an NBA game with his two sons. But then, Tom Brady is still rolling at 45. Why can’t it happen?
The first morning of the tournament in Akron is getting hot and muggy. Normally, this would be a terrible time to hold such an event: a holiday weekend, in central Ohio, during a heat wave. “Without Bronny, there would be five of us,” says Darren Duncan, organizer of the competition.
And most of the morning, the stands are half full. By 1:30, however, the energy has shifted. Fans pack the bleachers, and an array of young men with high-tech cameras, hailing from hype sites like Slam and Overtime, line the court as if fashioning a fashion runway, ready to upload footage within minute. Then out come the Blue Chips, led by Bronny. And his jersey No. 0 around his neck like a Cape, he starts off the layup line with a giant windmill dunk. (He is an exceptional dunker.) And now the DJ is bumping tunes; and kids in Cavs jerseys craning their necks; and at half court LeBron, wearing a Blue Chips T-shirt and a black durag, watches to approve in what is, if you think about it, a surreal sight: standing in the gym he renovated, in the city he is helping to support him. , down the street from the public school he founded, in a state inextricably linked to him, and, at the moment, playing the role of dad-assistant coach.
“I was born into it, so I feel like the path was already chosen,” says Bronny as she plays basketball. “But my dad is cool enough to let me take whatever path I want.”
David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated
The other team, a hyperathletic all-star squad from Canada, takes off early in the first quarter. During timeouts LeBron moves outside the hoop while Brook Cupps draws on the whiteboard. Cupps – buzz cut, glasses, steady – has done most of the training over the years, with James dropping in when his schedule allows, providing tips and doling out Skittles. Right now, LeBron is the guy offering water and towels, asking how many timeouts are left and delivering high fives. This LeBron is strangely changeable, even if he’s still 6′ 9″, with about 5% body fat. (It’s strangely comforting that James wears a black lumbar support around his waist, a concession to age and crappy chair ergonomics folded.)
James is loud, if nothing like the early days. He encourages Bronny, always, to “Retreat and push!” He suggests defensive rotations and tells Gabe and Bronny “Back up! Make them hit a jump shot!” He said, “Pasig! One more! One more!” during hockey help.
Earlier this morning, Bryce played his first game. At 15, he is long and wiry, and wears goggles. Most everyone I meet in LeBron’s orbit comments on how much Bryce has grown over the past year or so, something the internet has noticed as well. He now even stands up to his older brother.
During Bryce’s game, LeBron was a spectator, sitting in a chair at the end line, doing his best, as every parent must, to stay in his lane. When he sees his boys playing, he says, “I try to relax, but I can’t.” So he crossed and uncrossed his arms. Stroked his beard. Occasionally on call. On the court, Bryce hit threes and did his best to keep up with bigger and stronger opponents. He got frustrated at times and excited at others—basically, what you’d expect at 15. Savannah, who was All-City as a freshman, says Bryce is more like her—”he’ll hit back.” if you talk to him” — although his father Bronny is a better description: “calm, cool and collected.”
In fact, during the weekend Bronny rarely shows any emotion other than a sly smile. Smooth and graceful, he finds the open man and explodes for vertical rebounds. He loses his first three points by three goals against the Canadian team but then is up in the second half. He finishes a backdoor layup with a two-handed dunk, then chases down an opposing guard, steps up and teases a layup attempt, a play that bears no resemblance to one of his father’s popular blocks . Over four games in the tour he averaged 12 points and four assists.
This is all great, but what most people want to know is: So, how good will it be? That is difficult to answer, at least for now. Over the years, Bronny has been consistently ranked as a four-star recruit (out of five). His high school stats aren’t great, but Sierra Canyon is a powerhouse; two of Bronny’s freshman teammates, Brandon Boston Jr. and Ziaire Williams, already in the NBA. This will be the team’s first season leading the way.
Bryce, says Savannah, is more like his mother than his father: “He’ll hit back if you talk to him.”
David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated
Watching him over the weekend, what stands out isn’t his athleticism (although his leaping ability is elite) or his shooting (nice release; runs hot and cold) or any traditional skills, but the emotion what you get when you look at him: This is someone I want to play with.
Exhibition events like The Battle are just that: exhibitions. The guards are usually ball dominant, handling and attacking and shooting. Everyone tries to get their own. Not Bronny, though. He grabs defensive rebounds, takes one dribble and then passes to open wing shooters. He flies down the court in transition and pitches out for three corners. This isn’t surprising, given his pedigree, but it’s still a joy to watch. This is a kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he’s making the right basketball play, resisting the urge to put up numbers.
Gabe calls Bronny “a lot of fun to play with.” It’s a theme I hear echoed throughout the weekend, from youth scouts and players and coaches, like Dayton Elite’s Joey Gruden. “I like his game,” Gruden says after the Blue Chips dismantled his team. “Credit for not trying to do too much despite the spotlight.”
Of course, there’s a flip side to this, says talent evaluator Justin Brantley, former director of national scouting at NCSA Athletic Recruiting. “I see it as both a gift and a curse,” says Brantley, who has watched Bronny since sixth grade and provides replays for Battle games. “He wouldn’t try to take over games. He always tried to play the right way, and sometimes in grassroots basketball you need somebody to take over and take the next six shots. You’ll read it right, even when you’re like, I wish he’d attack.”
For the record, Brantley thinks Bronny will succeed at the highest level—”he’s so fundamentally sound, and you can imagine how good he’ll be around guys who understand spacing and basketball”— but not everyone is so sure. One successful AAU director I spoke with, who asks not to be named for fear of getting on LeBron’s bad side, is concerned about Bronny’s size, based on the popular assumption that, at 17, he grow. “I think he’s a good player, but I was at the NBA combine last year and there were maybe two or three guys under 6′ 3”, and they had a 45-inch vertical and Olympic speed. the NPA will be very difficult.”
He pauses. “But LeBron is a very powerful person. Who knows what he can get out of it?”
Thirteen years ago, during his induction into the basketball Hall of Fame, Michael Jordan stood at a podium and spoke to his daughter Jasmine and his two sons, Jeffrey and Marcus. Jordan assured them that a support system was ready, and that they were able to make good decisions. He also said something else: “I don’t want to be your people . . . because of all the expectations you have to deal with.”
Some famous sports parents cope with this burden by discouraging their children from following in their footsteps; others try to manage every step of the way. And, really, who are any of us to say what the right strategy is? It’s hard enough parenting a teenager without the world watching. There is no playbook. My daughters are 15 and 13, multi-sport athletes, and they are amazing and scary at the same time. Most days, I’m just doing the best I can. I coached their teams and supported their efforts and reduced their screen time and made mistakes and tried to learn from those mistakes but then made the same mistakes again.
By the time James won a title with the Cavs, in 2016, ESPN had already reported that Duke was offering a scholarship to Bronny (left, with Zhuri and Bryce).
John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated
With LeBron, we know his parenting dream – and, to be honest, as a dad, it sounds pretty awesome. But it also comes with particularly outsized expectations. How can Bronny achieve a standard that is, by nature, singular? To surpass his father he must be the best ever. “It’s unfortunate,” says Savannah. But she also knows that it cannot be avoided, so she reminds her son: You don’t have to do what your father did. You don’t need the same prizes. “And who’s to say he won’t [reach those heights]?” she asks. “But don’t dwell on my father’s achievements and think that I am automatically supposed to do the same, or even surpass him. Let me do it.”
LeBron agrees. He emphasizes that he never told his boys to play. “I always told them to see if they loved [basketball]. Because, at the end of the day, nothing will come of it if you’re doing it because you feel that’s what your parents are doing. Nah, it’s going to fall out too fast.”
He points out that he had no mentors in this field. He doesn’t call another NBA dad or talk shop with Dell Curry. “No one,” he says. “My entire career has been built on trial and error. I don’t have anyone when I came in at 18 [who] had an open door policy for me, to help guide me through what I was about to go into. So it was trial and error. . . but to be a sponge.”
And what do people say his comments about playing with Bronny set unfair expectations for his son? LeBron leaned forward, animated. “I don’t give a s— what anybody says. Our quest and our journey is not dependent on what everyone said. You will have five people out of 10 who love you. Then you will have 5 out of 10 people who hate you. That’s just the way of the land. It doesn’t matter what you do.” He’s overwhelmed now. “You can be a guy who literally goes to work at Starbucks, and there’s going to be four or five customers that come in and they hate the way you did the that chai tea latte. That’s just how it works. And the sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be, because you won’t be reacting or giving off that much energy.” (“Don’t give it any energy” is a motto he repeats over and over again.)
Instead, James tries to see each one as an opportunity, to “let that drive you and motivate you.” He picks up his phone. “I like to write quotes.” He scrolls through and finds one, from Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Everybody pity the weak. Jealousy, you have to earn money.”
For her part, Savannah is determined to keep an attitude. “Of course Dad wants [Bronny] to play on the same court eventually, maybe on the same team. That’s the icing on the cake for his career, and probably [as] a father,” she says. “But for me, I just want [Bronny] to be happy. If you are happy playing in gaming tournaments in Long Beach, then I want you to do it. If you’re willing to be a franchise player on an NBA team, that’s what I want you to do. . . . A lot of people are doing things and moving through life and they’re not necessarily happy.”
Bryce, like his brothers, knows the rare pressures of raising parents, named LeBron and Savannah (center, in Akron).
David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated
This is the sense you get from the Jameses: They understand the weight placed on their children – that burden that Jordan spoke of – and they want to fulfill it directly. “[My kids] hear the news out there on them,” LeBron tells me. “Even though they don’t talk about it, they hear the story; they see where they are.”
He pauses. “And the best thing about it? They have a wrong attitude like their father.”
The audience they need to convince lives in the NBA front offices, and in the following weeks I talk to various executives about LeBron’s intention to play with Bronny. “I’m sure, when that day comes” – when Bronny becomes eligible for the draft – “you have to think about it: Can we get LeBron for the mid-level exception?” says one front-office exec. (LeBron’s recent extension with the Lakers means he’ll be in control of his own destiny in 2024-25.) “But do you draft Bronny first, even if he’s not good, because you might get LeBron on the cheap? That’s kind of wild.” He pauses. “I don’t think it’s a first rounder, but I don’t think it’s anything.”
Overall, the consensus is that it is too soon. “People around the league aren’t spending any time thinking about this right now,” says one Western Conference general manager. “There is so much drama every day. Things move so fast.”
Then there is the difficulty of trying two years ahead. Will there be a new collective bargaining agreement? Will the league add a third round to the draft? And where will LeBron and Bronny be as players? NBA teams are good at shooting up and down lanes – but this? This requires plotting both Bronny’s rise and LeBron’s decline on the same graph, and that’s particularly challenging. “You’re talking about arguably the greatest player of all time, so there’s no predictive model,” the GM says. “[LeBron] has overcome everything. For most players, you could predict a 10% decline per year at that age, but I’m not sure you can tell him that. The 40-year-old version of him might be incredible.”
And motivated too. Think about it: So much of what sustains elite athletes at LeBron’s age is mental. Every season has an impact – the grueling preparation and recovery and the constant drama of the NFA. James is on track to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in early 2023 as the all-time leading scorer. He is already a billionaire. He can follow Jordan’s six titles, but much of that is out of his control. Playing with his son, though? Now that’s a flag he can run to, a reason to stick with him even if the Lakers are out of the hunt or his body is balky. It feels real. Shared. Like, I have to be there for my baby. I can not let down. (Also: James told me he’s inspired by Brady. “He took a chunk out of me when he quit, and then when he came back I was like, ‘I definitely needed that .'”)
First, however, a decision about college looms. Bronny could basically choose his school. Or go abroad for a year, play against grown men and tougher. Same in the G League way. Or he could train – and with his father’s resources, that means training with the best.
When I sit with them, the family is not sure. LeBron talks through the options, giving equal weight to everyone, and says they will decide in a family sit down. Savannah tells me that Bronny “wants to have a college career,” and I understand that she wants that too. “I think it would be really cool for him to start with college basketball, just to start his legacy there,” he says.
It is, after all, one thing Bronny could achieve that his father never did.
As the rest of the country settles into Fourth of July frenzy, Bronny cruises in his final game, on the third day of the tournament, scoring 14 points with five assists, a block and a steal. Two weeks later, he will dominate the Nike Peach Jam tournament and the hype will grow, spreading from online publications covering youth sports to larger media outlets. ESPN will speculate that Bronny is going to Duke and moving him up to No. 24 in his class. Another set of talking heads will claim otherwise: After this performance, he’s skipping college for sure.
Meanwhile, the factories post compilation highlights with captions like “OH MY GOODNESS BRONNY😳” and Bronny produces his 17th Instagram post and his dad shares it and then releases footage of the three boys working out together, one of them dunking after another, writing, “We’re working! That’s all we know. We don’t want s— giving us [sic], we EARN it! #JamesGang👑,” and this gets the internet excited.
Soon enough, in early August – after LeBron told me, “The biggest thing I see right now is my two boys on the same team” – Bryce and Bronny share the floor for first time playing for the California Basketball Club on one. overseas trip, and LeBron is overwhelmed, tweeting, “This is a MACHINE!! I’m FEELING AF!! WOW.” And the future is getting a little clearer: When I check in with LeBron at the end of August he says that Bronny is now “looking to get on the college road,” and later that week Bryce gets his first DI offer, from Duquesne’s Keith Dambrot, LeBron’s old high school coach.
By this point, the train is gaining steam, and it feels like there’s no turning back. Watching him play out, I think back to a moment on the Saturday night of the tournament, after the games were over. All the fans had gone home. Finally the players could release their positions and relax. Bryce’s team went out for pizza, eating while waiting for a table. Other teams returned to the downtown Marriott Courtyard, where they commandeered the pool and ran through the halls and had ice fights until 2 a.m., sprinting up and down the halls, like teenagers do, reveling in that twilight moment between youth and men when nothing seems. and you can leave much of the worry and planning to the adults and their myelin rich brains, trusting that they know, in the end, what they are doing.
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But who is Savannah James, the businesswoman and philanthropist who has been by LeBron’s side since the couple met at school? Born in the couple’s hometown of Akron, Ohio, Savannah Racheal Brinson has supported her husband on and off the court for many years.
Does LeBron James have real kids?
LeBron James and His High School Sweetheart Savannah Be a Trio of Superstar Kids. The only thing LeBron James loves more than basketball is his family. The four-time NBA champion shares the son of Lebron “Bronny” Jr. and Bryce and daughter Zhuri with his high school sweetheart Savannah, whom he married in 2013.
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Is LeBron James and his wife together?
The couple married in 2013 and have three children together: LeBron "Bronny" James Jr., Bryce Maximus and Zhuri Nova. To see also : Liberal Arts and the Community | Confessions of a Community College Dean. Continue reading to learn more about LeBron’s high school sweetheart, Savannah James.
Who did LeBron James have a child with? The 2037 WNBA MVP has probably entered this world. According to TMZ, Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James’ wolf pack grew by one, as his wife Savannah gave birth to the couple’s third child last week. Zhuri is James’ first daughter.
Is LeBron James in a relationship?
LeBron James is currently married to Savannah Brinson. The couple have three children together. To see also : Why music is your ultimate training tool for running. This list of LeBron James girlfriends includes Meagan Good and Amber Rose.
Is LeBron James married right now?
LeBron James, 37, is married to high school sweetheart Savannah Brinson, who is now James. Savannah, 35 years old, was born on August 27, 1986, and is an entrepreneur and philanthropist from Akron, Ohio. In 2018, she started a furniture line with American Signature called Home Court.
Will Bronny James make the NBA?
James Jr. will be eligible to enter the NBA Draft in 2024 and we all know how much James Sr. would love to. the opportunity to play with his son in the league.
Will bronny ever play with LeBron? LeBron James said he will play his last season with his son Bronny – wherever that is.
Is bronny James actually good at basketball?
Even with all the pressure, Bronny has done well and has shown glimpses of being a high-end prospect. He is currently rated as a four-star player in the high school class of 2023. He is ranked 30th in the country by Rivals.com, and is the No. 52 in the class by 247Sports.
Is bronny James a 5 star recruit?
He hasn’t fallen off as a must-recruit — being consistently ranked as a top 50 player nationally is a feat, as Bossi and Finkelstein both agreed — but he’s at least completely lost hype, dropping from five ones. -star to four-star recruit.
