Bronny James saw an opportunity and seized it less than 30 seconds into his 2025 NBA Summer League debut Sunday in the Chase Center’s “California Classic.”
The second-year Los Angeles Lakers guard rocketed forward and picked the pocket of Miami Heat guard Kasparas Jakučionis. James scurried to corral the loose ball before seamlessly transitioning to a fastbreak runway, where the 20-year-old elevated a few feet past the free throw line for a thundering, one-handed dunk.
Like father, like son.
Just as LeBron James so often does, Bronny gathered and flushed in a fluid, sweeping motion, complete with an emphatic dismount, which he followed with a slow walk and stare down past the baseline.
What a 6-foot-2 Bronny lacks in height, he makes up for with bounce.
A minute and a half later, James drained the first of his two 3-pointers on the day. He scored 10 first-half points but didn’t play in the second half, clocking out with only 11 minutes in a 103-83 Lakers victory.
Of Los Angeles’ five starters, James played the fewest minutes.
He’s coming off a rookie season in which he appeared in 27 games for the Lakers, averaging 2.3 points in 6.7 minutes per contest while posting a 31.3% field goal percentage. In the G League, however, the second-round pick shined for the South Bay Lakers, averaging 21.9 points, 5.5 assists and 5.1 rebounds on 44% shooting in the 11 games he played with the club.
James’ best NBA performance this past season arrived on March 20 when he shot 7 of 10 and recorded 17 points and five assists, albeit in a blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
After starting 2 for 2 Sunday, the USC product missed his next three shots: a sidestep 3, a second-chance floater later on and then a catch-and-shoot 3 from the right wing.
But he knocked down his second triple before intermission, courtesy of an assist from fellow 2024 draftee Dalton Knecht. James also added a pair of free throws before halftime.
James finished with a plus/minus of +4 and shot 3 of 7, including 2 of 5 from deep. He snagged two rebounds to go along with the steal that created his highlight-reel dunk.
Knecht, notably, struggled for the second game in a row. A day after he shot a mere 3 of 13 from the field, and 0 of 6 from 3, he again failed to connect from long range.
Last year’s No. 17 overall pick had as many points as turnovers Sunday against the Heat: four. He shot 2 of 7 and missed all three of his 3-point attempts.
Knecht, who averaged 9.1. points per game with a 37.6% clip from 3 with the Lakers in 2024-25, even took an elbow to the face from Heat rookie big man Dain Dainja, whom Knecht fouled on a layup attempt.
Former Villanova and Syracuse forward Cole Swider led the Lakers with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting Sunday.
James, though, made a bigger impression with one all-too-familiar sequence in the first minute of play.
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