LOS ANGELES – Just a few stragglers perch in lonely bleachers at Beverly Hills High, the curtain closing on the greatest high school show on hardwood.
The days of Bronny James at Sierra Canyon, the once-in-a-lifetime fusion of growing viral superstar into unique celebrity hotbed, are over. And you can feel it here, this Friday night. Sure, it’s an 8:00 p.m. tip against a team from Bakersfield at a neutral tournament-site gym; but the world used to come out for the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers on Friday nights, no matter the destination.
Gone are the social-media hypebeasts – just one camera patrols the floor behind the stanchion. Gone are the celebrities – just Kenyon Martin Sr., father of Sierra Canyon’s Kamron Martin, sits in a grey sweatsuit in plastic-makeshift courtside seats. Gone is the legion of kids that hang on Bronny’s every move. Gone is the noise.
“Get a rebound!” coach Andre Chevalier screams at one player he subs out. And the roar hangs stark inside a cavernous gym, no bodies or chatter in seats to blanket the barking.
“You can definitely see a difference,” says radio host Big Boy, father of Sierra Canyon junior Jayden Alexander, sitting a few rows above the Trailblazers’ bench. “But the one thing we have to do is win – Sierra was packing the gym before Bronny got on the floor, as well.”
“We’re lifeless,” he continues, “at Sierra Canyon.”
They’re indeed winning – 7-1 now, in the post-Bronny era, his brother Bryce turning into a solid player in his own right. But there simply is no replacing the storm that James brought in his Sierra Canyon days, a unique sociological phenomenon of a son of a great capturing his own audience of millions.
That storm, though, that led to constant scrutiny in the shadow of his enthusiastic father, Trailblazers games becoming popcorn theater the second LeBron James would walk into the home gym. Any highlight-level jam was circulated for millions, under the unspoken implication that Bronny was next up; any failure or setback was ridiculed, a McDonald’s All-American bid his senior year largely scoffed at under the claim of nepotism.
That storm has been reframed, as James enters a new chapter at USC. News of a summer cardiac arrest rocked the world; no longer did conversation center around whether he could live up to expectation, but simply whether he could step on a court again. And hype persists, into a much-anticipated season debut against Long Beach State Sunday, USC reporting that the Galen Center had sold out by Friday.
Hype, though, that for the first time will center on James’ story alone — not a story in the shadow of his father’s.
“It’s not a blessing, because you don’t want anything to go through that,” said Romeo Travis, LeBron’s old St. Vincent-St. Mary’s teammate and a lifelong friend. “But the way that it changed his narrative about being the Chosen One’s son, being spoiled or coddled or being, all these narratives that people were creating … it changed the narrative to let people know, ‘I am human, and I will persevere.’”
Many of James’ former Sierra Canyon coaches, and peers, will sit in a packed-out Galen Center Sunday in a moment USC teammate Kobe Johnson anticipated would be “very special.” The James family, as LeBron made plainly obvious, will be there, along with a celebrity guest list – if the Sierra Canyon days were any indication – that could rival any in Galen’s recent history.
It’s unlikely, of course, that James will have a truly major on-court role Sunday. He’ll come off the bench, and just had a return to full-contact practice Thursday. But he’s sorely needed as another ballhandler and shot-creator on this USC roster, and has a demonstrable track record of quickly meshing with solid competition, playing four years at Sierra Canyon with a handful of future pros.
“He’s a chameleon,” said Sierra Canyon assistant Chris Madden in early November. “He’s going to adjust to whatever level he’s at.”
And as USC’s season progresses, Bronny’s journey will be its most intriguing subplot – no longer constantly burdened with namesake-based expectation, but authoring a fascinating comeback tale.
“I think that he’ll get on the court without all the bull(expletive) that was thrown at him his senior year, junior year,” Big Boy said, “the gift and the curse of – who your dad, and what your last name, is.”