The son of NBA legend LeBron James, Bronny James, seemed to express his emotions when he likened his father’s basketball career to that of the legendary Michael Jordan.
Between 1984 and 2003, Jordan played in the NBA three times, with the Chicago Bulls accounting for the great majority of his achievements.
In 14 of his 16 NBA seasons, “MJ” was chosen an NBA All-Star, and he won the NBA championship six times.
In Jordan’s final regular season in 2003, LeBron James made his Cleveland Cavaliers debut, and his career hardly overlapped with his.
At the age of 39, James is still playing for the Los Angeles Lakers today and has been named an NBA All-Star in every season since 2005, setting a record for the most straight All-Star Game appearances.
Earlier in October, his son Bronny, who is also on the current Lakers roster, played in the NBA for the first time with his father.
After playing collegiate basketball for the USC Trojans for a season, the 20-year-old was chosen by the Lakers with the 55th overall choice in the 2024 Draft.
James has now made it obvious how he feels about the comparisons between his father and Jordan by deciding which player he would bench from his squad.
Bronny was requested to play a game of “Start, Bench, Cut” with LeBron, Jordan, and Kobe Bryant in a video posted to the HouseofHighlights Instagram account.
“For someone who didn’t have a dad growing up, to be able to have that influence on your kids… then ultimately, to be able to work with your son, I think it’s one of the greatest things that a father could ever hope for or wish for,” LeBron James said in his post-match interview after playing with his son in the NBA for the first time, on Bronny’s 20th birthday, no less.
Two well-known names are absent from Bronny James’ list of the best five NBA players of all collegiate basketball for the USC Trojans for just one season.
On Sunday night, LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son combo to play together in an NBA game, making history. On the same day that Bronny turned 20, the two played together in a Lakers preseason game against the Phoenix Suns.
It is therefore not surprising that Bronny’s father ranked first among the greatest NBA players of all time.
When asked to select the five greatest players to have ever played in the NBA, he was unable to find any room for Michael Jordan, which makes his ranking contentious.
Many people consider Jordan to be the greatest of all time in all sports. He was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player five times and won the NBA championship six times with the Chicago Bulls. The cultural and athletic icon is referred to as “the greatest basketball player of all time” on the NBA website.
But Bronny doesn’t agree.
“LeBron (James) is 1. Steph (Curry) 2. Kyrie (Irving) 3. KD (Kevin Durant) in 4. Ant (Anthony Edwards) and Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) tied at 5” is Bronny’s response when asked by ESPN to list his personal top five.
Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird were also left out by Bronny because of the emphasis on the NBA’s more recent stars.