LeBron and Brony James made history in the Lakers' season-opening win

Part plan, part pipe dream, Lakers star LeBron James and eldest son Brony became the first father and son to share an NBA court together — a milestone celebrating the elder James' longevity and the younger James' resilience.

Father and son made history when the two players went to the scorer's table together with four minutes left in the second quarter Tuesday night in the season opener against Minnesota at Crypto.com Arena. They played less than three minutes together with Bronnie James missing his only field goal attempt. It hardly matters.

“Apparently, this is a first in the beautiful history of the NBA. A father (and) son being on the same floor, let alone on the same team, should be able to grace the floor together,” LeBron James said. “So it was just, I talked about it years ago and for this moment to come, it's pretty cool. I don't know that it's actually going to hit both of us for a minute where we can really sit back and go, 'Oh, sheesh, that was cute, that's pretty crazy.'

Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., the first father and son to play on the same team in Major League Baseball, attended the game. Hockey legend Gordie Howe and MLB Hall of Famer Tim Raines also played as teammates at the highest professional level with their children.

As the Lakers opened their season and during JJ Redick's tenure as head coach, Anthony Davis led them to a 110-103 opening night victory.

It was the Lakers' first win on opening night since 2016.

Davis had 36 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots, attacking Minnesota center Rudy Gobert with a combination of speed, skill and power.

The Lakers used the second-quarter lead to build a 19-point lead before each of their starters had a hand in holding off Minnesota in the fourth.

Austin Reaves grabbed nine rebounds, Rui Hachimura had 18 points and D'Angelo Russell helped the Lakers settle during a stretch in the fourth quarter when he scored on a floater and fired a pair of lobs for three consecutive scores.

Fittingly, James' first three-pointer of the game iced the win — ending a night when the team made just five of 30 shots from deep. He had his 22nd of the season with 16 points.

LeBron James set a historic moment in motion in 2018 when he set the goal of playing with his oldest son as a finish-line moment. Two years later, he said it would be a “dream” to play on the same team as Brony.

This year in the NBA draft, it became a reality.

The Lakers used the 55th pick to select Bronie James despite an underwhelming first season at USC where he averaged 4.8 points per game.

Anthony Davis drives to the basket against Minnesota center Naz Reed in the second half.

(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)

James, however, did not make his debut for the Trojans until Dec. 10 due to a near-death ordeal during a summer workout on USC's campus. On July 25, 2023, James went into cardiac arrest and lost consciousness. USC athletic trainers used life-saving measures, including a defibrillator. He will later undergo surgery to correct the congenital heart defect.

“When he's able to grace an NBA floor, if it's tonight or whenever that happens, it's going to be one of those moments just knowing the adversity he's been through,” LeBron James said Tuesday morning. “Some of my family members have undergone heart surgery. Some of them are big, some are small. And to know how long it takes to get back to yourself, seeing him be able to play in a college Division I game the same year he had heart surgery was such a 'wow' moment.

“And I knew at that moment that there really wasn't going to be anything that was going to stop him from doing it — for what he wanted to do. And he wanted to keep playing basketball.”

Before Tuesday's game, Nike released an ad featuring James Broney's car filled with Fruity Pebbles cereal.

“Thank God it wasn't my car,” Bronnie James said.

“He now has multiple cars. He opened it and then got into another one,” LeBron later laughed.

The two played four minutes together in one of the Lakers' six preseason games, a moment that surprised LeBron James.

“We were standing next to each other and I kind of looked at him, and it was just like, 'Is this the Matrix or something?'” he said. “It didn't feel real.”

Postgame, Bronie James — who struggled for much of the preseason — cut it short.

“I just came out there and it felt like a normal play to be honest with my teammate,” Bronnie James said.

But as the moment approached, especially considering the odds he faced with 2023, Brony James' NBA debut was more than just another game.

“Yeah,” he said, “it's going to be crazy.”

And – to make it even better – the Lakers got a win.

“We still had a job to do when we checked in. We weren't trying to turn it into a circus. We weren't trying to make it about us,” LeBron James said. “We wanted to make it about the team, so we could go out there and continue to play, the brand of basketball that the coaching staff and our teammates wanted us to play. We kept that. We kept the main thing while on the floor and it was good for all of us.”