Bronny James made his debut with his other team on Saturday, suiting up for the G League South Bay Lakers’ season opener in front of a sold-out crowd.
Some of those fans included his father LeBron, the rest of their family and teammate Anthony Davis.
As for James’ performance against the Salt Lake City Stars, it was a quiet night. The second-round pick finished with six points on 2-of-9 shooting (0-for-4 from 3-point range) with four assists, three rebounds and five turnovers. He was a minus-one in a 110-96 South Bay win.
The more productive players for South Bay were undrafted free agents Quincy Olivari with 28 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and Maxwell Lewis with 27 points.
It was the first of many games James will play for South Bay while moving between the NBA and G League. It was reported earlier this week the plan is for him to essentially be a home-only player for South Bay, playing games for the team when they’re at the UCLA Health Training Center and joining the Los Angeles Lakers when the other team is on the road.
It’s about as cheery a gig a G League player can get, which isn’t surprising given that no G League player has the kind of leverage behind him that James does. The Lakers have made it clear they expect James’ development to be a long-term project, and most of the minutes that effort requires will come in South Bay.