A Mic’d Up LeBron Gave Bronny Some Final Advice On The Bench Before They Checked In

NBA history got made on Tuesday night in L.A., as in the second quarter of the Lakers season opener against the Timberwolves, LeBron James and Bronny James made their way to the scorer’s table to check in together, becoming the first father-son duo to play together in the NBA.

It was a cool moment, and the only other father-son combo to play on the same team at the same time in pro sports, Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., were also on hand to mark the occasion. There was a ton of build-up over the past few months — and, honestly, years as James had talked about wanting this to happen for a while — and new Lakers coach JJ Redick made sure to avoid letting it be a story for longer than it needed to, getting the two into the game together in the opener.

While there are always nerves for a rookie making their NBA debut, Bronny doing so alongside his legendary father with the basketball world all watching had to bring out even more butterflies. LeBron could seemingly sense that on the bench, and after checking out for his rest before the planned moment where they’d both check in, he shared some final advice for Bronny to try and calm those nerves, as TNT had LeBron mic’d up.

It’s a very cool moment and you can see how LeBron can’t fully turn off dad mode on the bench, as he tries to settle the nerves for Bronny and get him ready for what’s to come, highlighting the intensity of the game and then telling him just to play carefree. It wasn’t quite the movie script version of their debut, as the Lakers led by 16 when the two checked into the game, and the Timberwolves went on a little run, going at Bronny on the defensive end and the Lakers working maybe a bit too hard to create the Bron-to-Bronny bucket and getting a bit out of rhythm offensively. Still, L.A. was able to keep the lead at double digits and push it back to 13 by halftime, making sure the discussion could be about a historic moment and not anything more.