LeBron James won’t have to worry too terribly much with getting along with the Los Angeles Lakers‘ most recent second-round pick. That’s because the team used the No. 55 selection in the 2024 NBA Draft to bring in his son, Bronny, on the heels of one season at USC. While there are questions about Bronny’s long-term future in the NBA, he’ll at least get a chance to learn the ropes from his dad, who is a pretty good person to have in your corner as you get used to life in the league.
A father and son teaming up on the Lakers obviously led to people making jokes, but one of those jokes did lead to a pretty good question: What, exactly, is Bronny going to call LeBron in the locker room? LeBron got asked this in an upcoming episode of “The Shop,” and made very clear that Bronny calling him “dad” is off the table.
“No, we already laid that … no, he can’t, we already laid that down,” LeBron said. “He cannot call me dad in the workplace. Once we leave out of the practice facility and the gates close, I can be dad again, in the car, if we ride together, at home, I can be dad. No, he gotta call me, like, 2-3, or Bron, or GOAT if he wants to. It’s up to him.
“It’s easy for me, because I’ve been calling him Bronny for so long, it’s not like I’ve been calling him, ‘Hey, son, hey, son,’” James continued. “So, it’s easy for me, it’s gonna be an adjustment for him, but we cannot be running down the court and he’s like, ‘Dad, push the ball up! Dad, I’m open!’ No, you cannot do that.”
I am now rooting for Bronny to exclusively refer to LeBron as GOAT for however long they are teammates, as that would be extremely funny.