The Los Angeles Lakers’ four-time NBA champion LeBron James will likely make a trip to his 21st All-Star Game this season at 40 years old, but a new scenario was recently prompted to the all-time great for this year’s festivities.
With the future Hall-of-Famer now being joined on the Lakers by his son, Bronny James, the NBA figured that it would be a good proposition to have the two compete together in an event. Ultimately, both parties reportedly declined their moment to shine as a pair at the 2025 All-Star Weekend.
“Sources inform me that LeBron James and Bronny James were sought out by the league with the opportunity to further make history by being the first father-son duo to participate in the Skills Challenge during All-Star Weekend next month in San Francisco, but I was told that invitation was turned down,” shared NBA insider Chris Haynes via Twitter/X on Thursday afternoon.
“Bronny James was also extended an invite to be among the G-League players to participate in the Rising Stars Game. I’m told as well, that offer was declined.”
While it makes sense that the pair decided to not make a spectacle of themselves in a competition that has been losing steam at All-Star Weekend for the past few years, Bronny James declining to be a member of the Rising Stars challenge is somewhat surprising.
After being assigned to the franchise’s G-League affiliate South Bay Lakers on Nov. 8, James began to find his groove both as a scorer and facilitator.
In seven appearances for South Bay, James was able to accrue a scoring average of 14.7 point paired with 3.9 assists and 1.1 steals.
The 20-year-old University of Southern California product caught fire in his last five games, a stretch where he increased his production to 18.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists and scored a career-high 30 points on Dec. 12 in a 106-100 loss against the Valley Suns.
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