Austin Reaves: Playing with LeBron, Bronny James is 'going to be very cool for me'

For the first three years of his NBA career, Austin Reaves got to learn from one of the best to ever step on a court. He and LeBron James developed a special relationship with the Los Angeles Lakers to start his career, and they’re getting a special new teammate this year.

The Lakers selected Bronny James with the No. 55 overall pick in the NBA Draft, meaning he and LeBron will be the first father-son duo to play together in the association. Reaves will get a front-row seat as LeBron and Bronny don Lakers uniforms, and he talked with LeBron about it during the offseason.

While he knows what people say about the Lakers’ decision to draft Bronny James, Reaves said he’s looking forward to seeing how his career plays out beyond his dad’s shadow. But for LeBron James, Reaves knows it’ll be quite the moment when he and his son play in the same game for the first time.

“It’s crazy to think about,” Reaves said during an event in The Philippines. “Obviously, for LeBron, he’s 39 I believe, going into Year 22. For him to just put himself in that position, to have an opportunity to play with his son, it’s special. I know, obviously for him, it’s a very, very big thing. We’ve had conversations about it. And I know he’ll be extra motivated to be at his peak level, as always.

“For me to be able to be around them and to see what it’s going to be like, it’s going to be very cool for me, and I can’t wait to see Bronny grow. Obviously, he gets a bad rap because of who his dad is. Everybody’s going to hold him to the standard of his dad when the kid just wants to play and have fun and create his own path. I can’t wait to get around him and see him grow and ultimately, pave out a career for himself in his own way.”

Austin Reaves on Lakers in 2024-25: ‘I like where we’re at’

Bronny James and Dalton Knecht were the Lakers’ two draft picks this year as they look to bounce back from last year’s playoff loss. They also have JJ Redick in as head coach, meaning the franchise could take on a new look.

Austin Reaves said Redick spoke about the work he’s doing during the NBA Summer League, where James and Knecht made their respective debuts. The goal will be to avenge the loss to the Denver Nuggets, and Reaves is confident the pieces are in place.

“I like where we’re at,” Reaves said. “I think that we have what we need to go compete for a championship. You look back at the Denver series last year, I forget the statistic, but I think we led for like 140 minutes to their like 38 minutes or something, and we get beat 4-1. Which you can’t really wrap your mind around. But it was just a couple sequences down the stretch that we didn’t execute and they executed. If we do, we’d beat them in that series and we’d go on and have an opportunity to play Minnesota. So I like where we’re at.

“And then obviously, getting JJ, as I was talking about, someone that’s a fierce competitor that we’ve seen in Vegas for Summer League. He came up to us and said I’ve been staring at a whiteboard for three hours trying to figure out how we’re gonna do this stuff. So you can just tell the intensity that he has and the time that he’s gonna put in.”