Lakers Make Bronny James Announcement After G League Debut

After spending the first nine games of the 2024-25 NBA season with the Los Angeles Lakers, rookie Bronny James officially made his NBA G League debut with the South Bay Lakers on Saturday night.

For Bronny, LeBron James's oldest son, this was his first chance to get extended playing time and reps after only playing 2.8 minutes per game with the big league club. 

The No. 55 overall pick didn’t have the greatest offensive performance against the Salt Lake City Stars, scoring six points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 0-for-4 from beyond the arc.

However, James found other ways to impact the game on both ends of the floor, recording four assists, three rebounds, two steals, and one block in 31 minutes. He also had five turnovers in the opening-night win for South Bay.

When it was announced Bronny was being assigned to South Bay ahead of its regular season earlier this week, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the organization’s current plan is for James to play in G League home games.

After the Lakers’ win over Salt Lake City, South Bay's president and CEO Joey Buss was asked about the rookie’s schedule between the NBA and G League. Buss said it’s “fluid” and emphasized development for James.

“That's going to be fluid,” Buss said (h/t ESPN's Dave McMenamin). “We're going to do what's best for his development. There's going to be a lot of things that we do for all the assignment players, and decisions are made based off where they are, based off the injury status, based off how many bodies they need for practice. There's a lot of variables. So, nothing unique for Bronny. He's just kind of in that system.”

Since James isn’t on a two-way deal, the Lakers can shuffle him back and forth between LA and South Bay as often as they want. There could be instances where James is assigned to South Bay but is back the next day with Los Angeles.

With James only playing in G League home games, the next time we should expect to see him with South Bay is on Nov. 17 against the Stockton Kings (Sacramento G League affiliate). That game will be televised on ESPNU.

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