LeBron and Bronny James are not the first father-and-son duo to ever play professionally for one team and they won't be the last.
According to Yahoo Sports, in the four major North American professional sports, there were four that preceded the James father-son duo—they're Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty in the NHL and Tim Raines and Tim Raines Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. in the MLB.
New Lakers teammates LeBron and Bronny are the first in the NBA though as the careers of the GOAT Micheal Jordan's offsprings—Jeffrey and Marcus—peaked in high school (unless you can call the latter hooking up with Larsa Pippen a score) and Rick Barry was already long retired when his sons Brent, Jon, and Barry made it to the Association. There are other father-and-son duos that played in the NBA, but not just at the same time and much less on the same team.
Except for Ken Griffey Jr., who far exceeded his father's career in the Major Leagues, it's safe to say that the progeny proved less talented or successful in their chosen sport than their dads.
And Bronny is almost guaranteed to follow suit. To begin with he's not an otherworldly physical specimen as his dad is. He's a pipsqueak in the Luke Skywalker variety compared to LeBron's Darth Vaderesque physique. Bronny is 6'4" in shoes (6'2" measured in the NBA Draft Combine) and 210 lbs., while dad is 6'9" (same as Karl Malone) and 250 lbs.
When it comes to stats, the now 39-year-old LeBron—the NBA's all-time leading scorer with 40,474 points at the end of last season—is just on a different stratosphere even compared to other NBA greats—27.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, and 1.5 steals per game in 1,492 career NBA games.
Since he has yet to play an NBA game, let's just go by 19-year-old Bronny's college stats at USC, which amounts to a measly 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists per outing in 25 total games as a freshman.
I won't delve on why the Purple & Gold caved in and selected Bronny in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft, but it's their choice and better get Junior to please the franchise player—and some say the greatest of all time (Kareem is my GOAT though)—than draft some John Shmoe who may not amount to anything but a role player. Last time I checked the only MVP to come out of the second round is Nikola Jokic and Bronny is no Joker.
The J.J. Reddick hiring is a different story though, but hey if Jeanie Buss and Lakers brass want to play Neville Chamberlain (former British prime minister who basically let Hitler have his way before the start of World War II), then who are we to judge (I'm not saying LeBron is Hitler though, let's not blow it out of proportion)—podcast partner it is!
Closer to home, Asia's first play-for-pay league has already produced a father-and-son duo nearly 30 years ago before LeBron and Bronny when Robert "Sonny" Jaworski Sr. drafted his son Robert "Dodot" Jaworski Jr. in the second round of the PBA 1996 draft.
Jaworski Sr., who is the PBA's answer to the late Jerry West as both are literally the logos of each league, had a "decent" PBA career with averages of 12.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 6.08 assists, and 0.7 steals in 958 games for fabled Toyota and later Ginebra (Gilbey's Gin, Añejo, Tondeña, and Gordon's Gin Boars), where he assumed the playing-coach duties after his second year.
The younger Jaworksi averaged an unremarkable 2.2 points, 1.1 rebounds, 0.5 assists, and 0.2 steals in 101 games for Ginebra Na!, Gordon's Gin Boars, and Ginebra in a three-year pro career from 1996-1998. Along the way, he won one title with the La Tondeña franchise—the 1997 PBA Commissioner's Cup with Chris King—and promptly retired when daddy decided to run or Senate (He also won by marrying Mikey Cojuangco). He went on to become daddy Sonny's chief of staff in the Senate (He's now vice mayor Pasig City).
Now, if we can only go back in time and prevent Sonny from supporting Erap in the second EDSA People Power Revolution, then he'd be untouchable as far as being my all-time favorite basketball player is concerned.
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