Bronny James made his dad proud on Saturday afternoon.
LeBron James’ son made his NBA Summer League debut with the Lakers at the California Classic, scoring his first professional point in the second quarter.
Playing against the Kings’ summer team, Bronny stole the ball from big man Colin Castleton at the top of the key, drove to the rack and ripped the rebound for a layup, but Los Angeles lost to Sacramento, 108-94.
LeBron, who was in Las Vegas training with the US team in preparation for the Olympics later this month, was seen watching the game on his phone and soaking up the moment.
“Hey, that’s tough, that’s tough. Calm down!” the older James said, wearing a USA Basketball shirt.
The 19-year-old USC product finished with four points on 2-of-9 field goal attempts.
He also recorded two rebounds, two assists and a steal.
“The atmosphere was better than I expected,” Bronny said after the game, according to the Associated Press. “It’s a big game for me, but I didn’t expect the people of Golden State to come out and cheer me on, so I was really happy.”
It’s been a whirlwind month for Bronny, who was selected 55th overall by the Lakers in the 2024 NBA Draft.
This comes after reports on the second day of the draft that Bronny and his father’s agent, Rich Paul, said that if a certain team selected him, Bronny would flee to Australia.
But Bronny ended up in Los Angeles. It is reported that he has signed a four-year contract As of Wednesday, it was worth $7.9 million.
And on the same day, according to ESPN, LeBron agreed to return to the Lakers on a $104 million contract extension, despite opting out of his previous contract with the team.
Reflecting on his first summer league game, Bronny said he’s ready to improve.
“It’s really good for me to look back on my mistakes and look back on what I did right,” he told reporters, “but with each match I’m feeling more and more comfortable with how I’m playing and I feel that’s a big reason why I’m out here working so hard.”
