LOS ANGELES (CNS) – LeBron James and his oldest son Bronny became the first active father-son duo in NBA history Tuesday evening as the Lakers opened their season with a 110-103 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena.
LeBron and Bronny James entered the game together with 4 minutes left in the second quarter, to big cheers from the capacity crowd of 18,997 which included Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. and his father, Ken Griffey Sr., Major League Baseball’s first father-and-son teammates.
“It’s family,” LeBron James told TNT. “It’s always my family over everything and for me, I lost a lot of time because of this league, and committing to this league, being on the road at times, missing a lot of his things, Bryce’s things, Zhuri’s things so to be able to have this moment where I’m working still and I can work alongside my son is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever gotten from the man above and I’m gonna take full advantage of it.”
The 20-year-old James missed a tip-in of a missed 3-point shot by Anthony Davis 36 seconds after entering the game. He also missed a 3-point shot 1:38 before halftime. He left the game after playing 2:41 and did not return.
The Lakers were outscored by five when Bronny James was on the court. He did not play in the second half. Only his 39-year-old father had a worse plus-minus for the Lakers, who were outscored by six in the 34:39 he was on the court.
Davis had 36 points and 15 rebounds, both game highs, as the Lakers won a season opener for the first time since 2016.
LeBron James was among four other Lakers to finish in double figures with 16 points.
Anthony Edwards, a teammate of LeBron James and Davis on the gold medal-winning U.S. men’s basketball team in the Paris Olympics, led Minnesota with 27 points.
The game also marked JJ Redick’s debut as the Lakers’ coach. He was hired in June to replace Darvin Ham, who was fired four days after his second season as coach ended with a loss to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
The 40-year-old Redick’s only coaching experience is with his son’s youth team.
“The newness part is exciting,” Redick said on Monday. “The familiar part is also exciting, because I really missed it over the last three years.”
Redick played 15 seasons in the NBA, retiring in 2021. He spent the past three seasons as an NBA analyst for ESPN and as a podcaster.
Redick is the Lakers’ seventh permanent coach since Phil Jackson’s retirement following the 2010-11 season — Bernie Bickerstaff served a five- game stint as interim coach during the 2012-13 season — and fourth since LeBron James signed with the team in 2018.
The Lakers also celebrated the legacy of Jerry West, the Hall of Fame player and executive who died June 12 at age 86, at Tuesday’s game. The players will wear a commemorative No. 44 band on the left shoulder of their uniforms throughout the season.
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