NBA: LeBron James ‘given life’ by playing with son, Olympic gold

Los Angeles Lakers #23 LeBron James and his son #9 Bronny James attend the Lakers media day at UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo, California, September 30, 2024. | Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP

ELSEGUNDO, United States — LeBron James said Monday the historic prospect of playing alongside eldest son Bronny for the Los Angeles Lakers has given him a new lease of life ahead of the upcoming NBA season.

James, 39, will tie Vince Carter’s record of playing 22 seasons in the NBA this year when he suits up for the Lakers after a summer in which he helped the USA defend their Olympic gold medal in Paris.

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At some point this season, James will make NBA history by playing alongside 19-year-old son Bronny, who was chosen by the Lakers with the 55th pick in the draft in June.

James, who turns 40 in December, said he felt reinvigorated by the “pure joy” of being able to go work with one of his children.

“It’s a lot of excitement, a pure joy, to be able to come to work every day, put in hard work with your son every day and be able to see him continue to grow,” James said at the Lakers media day in El Segundo.

“We push each other. He pushes me. I push him. We push our teammates, and vice versa. So it’s just a very joyous moment not only for myself, but for our family. So it’s pretty awesome. Gives you a lot of life.”

James revealed that he had taken a relaxed approach to guiding his teenage son at home, revealing that Bronny was just as likely to be in his bedroom playing video games as taking advice from his superstar father.

“To be honest, if you have kids, at my age and his age, there’s not really much interaction going on on a day-to-day basis,” James joked.

“I mean, he comes down, he eats, he goes to his room, plays a video game. I’m down there with my wife, watching the movie.

“So it’s not like, you know, ‘Meet me at the table at five o’clock. We need to discuss work tomorrow.’ That doesn’t happen.

“But he’s been around the game of basketball since he was born. Obviously, I’ve played in the NBA longer than he’s been alive, so he understands the nuances of it, as far as just being around the game.

“But now he’s a man, and it’s time for him to learn and get better with that.”

Plenty ‘in the tank’

James meanwhile said being part of the USA’s gold medal-winning team in Paris, when he formed part of a star-studded line-up alongside the likes of Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, had convinced him that he still had plenty “left in the tank”.

“When you’re with 11 other unbelievable, great talents, some of the best talent we’ve ever seen, it gives you a lot of joy to be able to play the game, play it at a high level,” James said.

“For myself individually, to go out there at my age, the miles that I have, and to be able to play at the level I played at, it gave me like, ‘Okay, I do have a lot in the tank, a lot, and I can help a big part of a team win the ultimate.”

James added that the gold medal win had fueled his hunger to play “meaningful basketball” again, four years after his last appearance in the NBA Finals in 2020.

“It felt damn good to play meaningful basketball at the highest level,” James said, describing hard-fought Olympic semi-final against Serbia and the final against hosts France as like “two game sevens back-to-back.”

“You know that that fire and desire was brought back to me, that I was like, ‘Okay, this is what it was all about. This is why we all came together and called ourselves the Avengers.’

“So to have that feeling again where you’re playing like meaningful basketball, every possession means something — if you make a mistake it burns you. That was good to relive that moment.”