Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James Jr. (9) shoots against Houston Rockets guard Reece Beekman during the first half of an NBA summer league basketball game Friday night in Las Vegas.
DALLAS — LeBron James and his son Bronny will soon become the first father-son pairing to share the NBA court. There are few people who can understand what playing professional sports with your son is like.
One person who can however, is Ken Griffey Sr. who played with his son Ken Griffey Jr. in Seattle for 51 games in the 1990 season, becoming the first father-son duo in MLB history to appear in the same lineup.
Griffey Sr. and Jr. spoke Thursday at the workout day for the 2024 HBCU Swingman Classic, which was Friday night at Globe Life Field, and explained what advice they would give to Bronny and LeBron before they take the court together.
“My advice is to be yourself,” Griffey Sr. said. “When Jr. found out I was coming over, he kind of put some extra pressure on himself. He wanted to do better, he wanted to hit a home run every time up and then I said, ‘just be yourself, have fun, play the game.’ “
Bronny James was drafted with the No. 55 pick in the 2024 NBA draft out of USC. LeBron James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and is known as one of the game’s best players with 20 All-Star appearances, four MVPs and four Finals MVPs over his 21-year career that started with the Cleveland Cavaliers before playing for the Miami Heat, Cavaliers again, and now the Los Angeles Lakers.
Griffey Sr. was a 19-year MLB veteran who played for the Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves and Seattle Mariners, amassing three All-Star selections and two World Series championships while playing in the famous Big Red Machine lineup.
Griffey Jr. gave similar advice, saying the pairing should soak up the opportunity.
“Go out and have fun,” Griffey Jr. said. “This is enjoyable, this is something that’s a once-in-a-lifetime, generation thing that happens. Think about this, the things that have to happen is your dad has to play a long time and you have to be really good early … just enjoy it, it’s gonna be fun.”
With 13 All-Star selections, 10 Golden Gloves and seven Silver Slugger awards over a 22-year career, Griffey Jr. is regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
The elder Griffey spoke about how his son struggled to get hits in front of him early in his playing days.
“I said, ‘This is your team, so just relax and play the game.’ He finally took it because I’m gonna tell you what, between the age of 12, till the day before he turned 18, he didn’t get hit in front of me. He struck out every time, it took him a long time to get relaxed. Finally went to see him in the instructional league, he got a base hit. So I asked him, ‘You OK now?’ ” Griffey Sr. said. “[Griffey Jr.] said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine now,’ but it took him six years to do it.”
The Griffeys are remembered as one of the MLB’s most iconic teammates despite their short time playing together and only time will tell if Lebron James and Bronny will join the pair as iconic father-son teammates.
