The worst-kept secret of the NBA Draft was that the Los Angeles Lakers would select the attention-grabbing LeBron ‘Bronny’ James Jr. after LeBron James signed a contract extension. Unfortunately, the worst-case scenario was hard to ignore after James Jr. fell out during a college practice. A cardiac arrest emergency was eventually diagnosed as a treatable heart defect but the episode had everyone worried about the young man’s life, not his next basketball game.
The world-famous 20-year-old admitted things have not been the same in an interview with Hanif Abdurraqib of Men’s Health magazine.
“My days aren’t normal anymore,” James Jr. revealed. “I still feel like I’m getting back, I’m getting back to where I was.”
As for what helps?
“I got my heart pillow,” shared James Jr. “When I coughed, it used to hurt a little bit, but you get this pillow, and when you cough you just hold it so it doesn’t hurt.”
Bronny James Jr. built for Lakers’ leap
The leap from the PAC-12’s USC Trojans to the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers was always going to be a challenge for any second-round pick. Being the son of a future Hall of Famer who just got a podcast partner hired as head coach is a totally different set of adjustments.
Bronny Jr. is learning quickly that those driveway drives against Dad are not the same as those in the Lakers’ practice facility. James Jr. has not been phased despite some unspectacular performances this preseason.
“Everything I’ve been through over the years has prepared me for this,” Bronny Jr. stated. “I really think it just ties back to me experiencing so much negativity and pushing through all of that. I feel like it built me to where any situation that is trying to hold me back or I’m not fighting through at the time, I can sustain my comfortability and belief in myself to keep going.”
“I mean, there might be a couple of times that I look at something and it makes me mad,” James Jr. added. “I go out and play better but most of the time it’s in through one, out the other.”
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