The city of Cleveland apparently has a lot love for LeBron James Jr.
Los Angeles Lakers rookie Bronny James officially made his road debut on Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. With the Lakers trailing by 20 with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Bronny subbed into the game at the guard position for teammate Gabe Vincent.
Upon checking into the contest, Bronny got a surprisingly warm reception from the crowd at Rocket Mortage FieldHouse. A lot of cheers could be heard as Bronny entered.
BRONNY JAMES CHECKS INTO THE GAME IN CLEVELAND pic.twitter.com/cpFIdGqIvX
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 31, 2024
The cheers then got even louder when Bronny scored his first career points on a midrange jumper over Cleveland’s Jaylon Tyson.
Bronny James scores his first-career bucket!
Special moment in Cleveland pic.twitter.com/pauUZQ14AX
— NBA (@NBA) October 31, 2024
Like his father LeBron James, Bronny was born in Akron, Ohio. As a 2004 birth, Bronny spent a lot of time in that arena when he was a kid seeing as LeBron played for the Cavaliers from 2003-10 and again from 2014-18. While there were a good amount of Lakers jerseys in that crowd, that was still a pretty loud ovation there for Bronny.
Bronny is not the really most popular player right now, and Cleveland obviously has a complicated relationship with LeBron, who left them twice but also delivered them an NBA championship in 2016. But the Cavaliers franchise recently showed some love to both LeBron and Bronny, and the hometown fans followed suit on Wednesday with a warm reception for the younger James.
