LeBron James had a big night in the Lakers’ win over the Mavericks on Wednesday night, but after the game, his thoughts immediately turned to how his son Bronny, who plays for the USC Trojans, was faring during their road game against No. 12 Arizona.
Right after Los Angeles’ win, James was jogging to the locker room apparently in a rush to turn on the TV and watch Bronny’s game, which was televised on ESPN. The Lakers’ win was show on ABC.
“I have to go catch my son’s game real quick,” James said.
The 39-year-old James then proceeded to give his postgame interview with reporters while watching the USC-Arizona game on TV and rooting on Bronny while interjecting some commentary, like pleas to “shoot it,” as any invested fan would during a game.
A reporter then asked LeBron how the 19-year-old Bronny was doing and how USC looked.
“He’s doing well,” Lebron said, while adding USC has “been better.”
A reporter also asked if it was harder to watch Bronny play, or to suffer a tough Lakers’ loss, and James had an interesting reply.
“Watching college basketball alone is tough and then you add my son in there it’s even …” James said. “Yeah, yeah. It’s hard to watch. It’s hard to watch.
“Yeah, I’m a dad but also love the game of basketball and college basketball is just … like 10 people in the paint at the same time. It’s very hard at times to watch. USC is a great program and Arizona is a great program. You get an opportunity to watch some good basketball in this game.”
LeBron was unable to root Bronny and USC to victory as the Trojans (8-10, 2-5 Pac-12) fell 82-67 to No. 12 Arizona (13-4, 4-2).
Bronny, who played in his 10th game of the season since returning from cardiac arrest, finished with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds in his second start of the season for USC.
It was a much better night for the freshman than his first Division I start in which he was held scoreless in USC’s 68-58 loss to Colorado on Saturday night.
Bronny was forced to start again because USC still was missing lead guard Boogie Ellis, who was out for the second straight game with a hand injury, while freshman guard Isaiah Collier had hand surgery last week.
“Without Boogie and Isaiah, our two primary lead guards, Bronny has done a nice job of being the primary ballhandler when he’s in the game and defending at a pretty good level,” USC coach Andy Enfield said after the loss. “I thought he started out very well tonight and we just need him to keep improving.”
As for LeBron, he scored 25 points and added eight rebounds and eight assists to help lead the Lakers to a 127-110 victory over the Mavericks.
But it’s likely USC’s loss took some of the joy away from the Lakers’ win for LeBron, if his multi-tasking interview was any indication.