LeBron James wasn’t on the court for one of the most significant games for him last season.
It wasn’t a Lakers game or even an NBA game.
It was the Dec. 10 matchup between USC and Long Beach State, during which his oldest son, Bronny James, made his collegiate debut with the Trojans less than five months after suffering sudden cardiac arrest.
“Every minute he ran, every minute he jumped, took a bump to his chest — it’s just a lot of nerves for sure,” LeBron James said during an interview on the Netflix docuseries, “Starting 5.” “For me, the best play of the whole game is when the game ended and he walked off on his own, in his own power.”
LeBron and Bronny James are now Lakers teammates, after Los Angeles drafted Bronny with the 55th overall pick in June.
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Less than a year earlier, during a July 25 Trojans workout, Bronny James collapsed on the Galen Center floor. The family later said the probable cause of his sudden cardiac arrest had been identified as an “anatomically and functionally significant congenital heart defect.”
“Shout-out to the man above, one, to the whole coaching staff, training staff, members of that program,” LeBron James said on the docuseries. “They are the reason Bronny is alive now and smiling and thriving and doing what any 19-year-old should be doing, and that’s living out their dream.”
James described the period of time after the incident as “a hard-ass few months, watching our son go through the things that he was going through personally. I mean, it affected all of us in our household.”
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His wife, and Bronny’s mother, Savannah James got choked up while discussing that time on “Starting 5.”
“It was tough,” she said. “I think that we processed it differently. I think at the end of the day, it was just about us supporting each other and just being super grateful for the outcome.”
“Starting 5” chronicles the 2023-24 seasons of James and fellow NBA superstars Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat, Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Domantas Sabonis of the Sacramento Kings and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics.
A significant portion of one episode focuses on Bronny James’ first game with USC. The night before, LeBron James helped the Lakers defeat the Indiana Pacers 123-109 to win the NBA’s first in-season tournament title in Las Vegas. Immediately afterward, James said, he got on a plane so he could be there for his son.
“I know he had to be nervous as hell ‘cause I was nervous as hell,” LeBron James said.
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Bronny James said on the docuseries: “There were a lot of butterflies, but that is to be expected. Every game it pretty much feels the same way.”
The freshman guard recorded four points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 16 minutes during an 84-79 Trojans loss in overtime that sure felt like a huge victory for the James family.
“To see your kid being able to thrive and being able to live out his dream is one thing,” an emotional LeBron James said. “But to see your kid go through adversity and be able to overcome adversity is another. Because you gotta imagine, like, the last time he was on a basketball floor doing anything live, he was taken out on a gurney going to the hospital.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.