HOUSTON — As one of the NBA’s greatest basketball players of all time sat at a locker too small for his chiseled, 6-foot-8-inch frame, you could tell he was a bit fatigued. However, he could still probably play another game, if that is what his team needed from him.
It was clear Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, whose triple-double (18 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists) helped his team defeat the young Rockets, 134-109, was determined to will his team to a victory and push his team closer to a Western Conference playoff seed that might avoid the play-in tournament.
Once the media dispersed from James’ locker, he began to remove the rest of the tape around his ankles. He didn’t raise his head when I asked if I could ask him one more question.
“Sure,” James said, perhaps expecting that another game question he had already answered in many ways could be asked again.
“Was it nostalgic when you stepped on the court after watching Bronny play on the same floor less than a week ago,” I asked.
At that moment, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer stopped what he was doing and leaned his body back with a big smile. If it is one thing the public knows about James, it’s that the 38-year-old legend loves talking about any of his three children.
“I thought it was cool to stand in the same spot he hit his first 3-pointer,” the elder James said. “He was here about a week ago, and it was just cool to see him on an NBA court.”
Bronny James, a 6-foot-3 senior guard at Sierra Canyon High School in California, put on a show in front of a sold-out Toyota Center that included his father, LeBron, in the McDonald’s All-American Game. His 15 points and 4 assists were almost good enough to help lead the West over the East, but his team fell just short.
“Standing on that court where he played just made me think about what could be in the future,” the elder James said.
LeBron’s premonition could lead him and his son back to Toyota Center in the future. Unlike his father, Bronny can’t jump straight from high school into the NBA, so he will need to play basketball somewhere else in 2023-24 before being eligible for the 2024 draft.
At the moment, James is not committed to any college and could play in the NBA G League to meet the league’s requirements of being one year removed from high school and at least 19 years of age.
As for LeBron, Los Angeles gave him a two-year, $97.1 million contract extension last August, and that deal includes a player option for 2024-25. That creates the opportunity for him to be a free agent in the 2024 offseason and sign with whatever team Bronny is drafted by.
Could that possibly be Houston, which likely doesn’t have its own first-round draft pick in 2024 but will have one from Brooklyn? It’s at least possible, depending on what the Rockets do with their significant salary cap room this offseason. Perhaps it’s a scenario that comes into play if the Rockets acquire players on one-year contracts.
At a bare minimum, the exposure Houston gained this week from hosting the NCAA’s men’s Final Four and its surrounding events, which included the McDonald’s All-American Game for top high-school prospects, can’t hurt when it comes to raising the market’s visibility in this pivotal period of the franchise’s rebuilding plan.
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