Without a doubt the most promising story coming out of the Los Angeles Lakers Summer League was the performance of Bronny James. The second-year guard did a lot to quiet his many doubters with his play, especially in Las Vegas as he looked far better than he did a year ago.
The start of Summer League was a bit concerning, however, as Bronny sat out the Lakers’ opening game at the California Classic and was then on a minutes restriction once he began play as he built up his conditioning. This led some to wonder why Bronny’s conditioning was suffering, but he recently would explained why.
In an interview with Dave McMenamin of ESPN, James revealed that due to the cardiac incident he suffered in 2023 while at USC, it has affected his immune system and he now gets sick easier which has caused him to sit out and hurt his conditioning:
“I get kind of sick easier now,” he said. “Which is kind of weird, but I think it messed with my immune system a little bit. So, I would have times where I have to sit out, and that conditioning that I’m working on just goes away in that week of me being out.”
It happened this summer, with an illness keeping him out of a week’s worth of workouts leading up to the California Classic. His conditioning suffered, and the team held him out of the opener in San Francisco. Then, he was on a minutes restriction in his second game.
“Anytime you have a situation like this, it takes some time for the body’s collaborative immune system to build back up,” Lakers athletic trainer Mike Mancias told ESPN. “It’s very normal to have even elite athletes experience this. But because of Bronny’s age and condition, it [will happen] even faster.”
It is sometimes easy to forget that Bronny nearly lost his life when he suffered cardiac arrest and the effects of that are still being felt today. But he is continuing to work through everything and the development that he has seen since joining the Lakers is apparent.
Whether or not he will be able to crack the rotation this season remains to be seen, but there is no doubt Bronny will put in the work to get past these issues and become the player he wants to be.
Lakers coach JJ Redick has players he wants Bronny James to emulate
Bronny James doesn’t have the physical attributes of his father LeBron James, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a long NBA career. In fact, Lakers coach JJ Redick recently mentioned a pair of NBA players whom he feels Bronny should emulate if he wants to be a rotation player.
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