Bronny James played in a college basketball game on Sunday, and now comes the amazing part. He is a teenager burdened by his birth certificate. He was several months removed from cardiac arrest. He is, without exaggeration, the offspring of the new American royalty. And he put on his white USC jersey and walked onto the Galen Center floor to a standing ovation in the middle of a December afternoon, exposed and naked, immediately forced to find out who he was in full view of the world.
It’s OK to watch. It’s okay to be interested. Now is definitely the time for that.
These are the first lines of a deep and strangely intriguing story, or at least the part of it that turns beautiful. Before, he existed as a character for a bit. The prince glanced from the balcony. Now there are 16 minutes and a made shot and a competitive disaster of an overtime loss at Long Beach State, and it all serves to vindicate LeBron Raymone James Jr. in a way that mixtapes and myths and social media posts can’t. He is real and up front, carrying the weight of blood and public expectations. He had a lot to handle from here.
And he’s nobody’s business if anyone cares to pay attention.
Which they will. In seemingly incredible numbers.
Lines of fans snaking through the arena and into the street, hours before tipoff Sunday. Courtside seats on the secondary market for about the price of a used car. However, this is all speculation. Prospecting. Pushing the pan into the river and hoping something brilliant comes out of it. Everyone has an idea about Bronny James, but it’s unlikely that many will continue to be solid and true.
That changed around 1:19 pm local time on December 10, 2023.
“Look who’s going to the scorer’s table,” play-by-play announcer Jacob Tobey told anyone tuning into the Pac-12 Network this weekend. Dad stood up and took out his phone and started recording. It was an undeniably triumphant human moment; the kid who failed practice in late July, who had a congenital heart defect no one knew about and lived without a basketball, entered his first college game. It’s worth the price of admission — well, maybe several prices of admission — alone.
It’s also true that people filled the gym and tuned in to the broadcast not to watch the return of Bronny James but to arrive.
An unreasonable inquiry, and a reminder that nothing will be reasonable about it.
James was good, under the circumstances. “Very solid,” as Trojans coach Andy Enfield said afterward. Three rebounds. Two assists. Two thieves. A chase-down block to add to the family stockpile. And, inevitably, a missed free throw in the final minute that essentially made it easier for Long Beach State to take the game into overtime.
He looks like a player who could be a very good addition. He left everyone wondering who he was.
That’s the truth now. Bronny James is essentially a scion of the modern American aristocracy, performing his particular role clearly. Noblesse, obliged. He may have never been Michael Jordan’s children. The one who never had the chance to be Gigi Bryant. He can be something completely different and all his own. Whatever happens will be the result of a vast and unfair and inevitable life lived today with more people watching and waiting than ever before.
Sunday is not a culmination, though it feels like one. This is the beginning of a deep and strangely intriguing story. Or at least the part where it gets good.
(Photo of Bronny James waiting to catch the ball as LeBron James looks on: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
