There will be no on-court father-son moment between LeBron James and Bronny James at NBA All-Star Weekend this year. LeBron and Bronny were extended an invite to compete in the Skills Challenge, but the father-son Lakers pair declined, according to Chris Haynes. Bronny also received an invite to be one of the G League players to compete in the Rising Stars Challenge, to which he also turned down.
It’s unclear why the James duo declined to participate, but had they accepted they would’e been the first father-son duo to compete in the Skills Challenge, which is set to be part of All-Star Saturday Night festivities on Feb. 15.
LeBron has never competed in an event on All-Star Saturday Night, despite the many public pleas from fans and media members alike for him to participate in the dunk contest. He toyed with the idea early on in his career, most notably saying in 2009 that he was “preliminarily putting [his] name in the 2010 dunk contest.” That never happened, and in 2023 LeBron revealed that it was “never something [he] wanted to accomplish” in his career.
Not only will we presumably never see LeBron in the dunk contest, but with this declined invitation of the Skills Challenge, he’ll likely retire without us ever seeing him compete in any of the All-Star events on Saturday night.
For Bronny, it’s rather surprising that he wouldn’t take up the offer for at least the Rising Stars Challenge, especially given the revamped format could’ve given us a potential father-son matchup during the All-Star Game. The league announced a complete overhaul in how the All-Star Game will work, where the 24 All-Stars will be split into three, eight-player teams. They’ll play a mini tournament that will also feature the winning team from the Rising Stars Challenge.
Had Bronny been part of the winning Rising Stars team, and if LeBron’s All-Star team won as well, they could’ve faced off in a championship game. That would’ve certainly been must-watch television. Sadly, though, it appears as though we’ll be deprived of that entertainment.
LeBron and Bronny made NBA history by sharing the court together in the Lakers season opener against the Timberwolves in October, becoming the league’s first father-son duo to play together. Bronny, a second-round pick in last June’s NBA Draft, has played in 11 games for the Lakers so far this season, scoring four points while making just one of his 10 field-goal attempts. Bronny has averaged 14.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game with the South Bay Lakers, the team’s G League affiliate.
