LOS ANGELES (AP) – LeBron James gave his 20-year-old son a pep talk before the Lakers got here off the bench. Amid growing cheers, they approached the scorer’s table together and immediately made basketball history.

LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to play together in the NBA on Tuesday night Los Angeles Lakersopening of the season, fulfilling the dream established a couple of years ago by LeBron, the top scorer in the history of the league.

“That moment when we sat at the scorer’s table together and checked in together is a moment I will never forget,” LeBron said. “No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade with age or whatever, I will never forget this moment.”

Father and son showed up at the same time for the match against Minnesota 4 minutes before the end of the second quarter, which caused an amazing ovation from the fans, aware of the enormity of this vital event. LeBron, 39, had already began the game and played 13 minutes before joining his 20-year-old son for about 2 1/2 minutes of motion.

LeBron James is certainly one of the best players in NBA history, a four-time champion and a 20-time All-Star, while LeBron James Jr. was chosen by the Lakers in the second round of the draft last summer. Are first father and son playing in the highest basketball league in the world at the same time, let alone being on the same team.

“Are you ready? You see the intensity, right? But just play carefree,” the father said to his son on the bench before they checked in, and the exchange was captured by TNT cameras and microphones. “Don’t worry about mistakes. Just go out and play hard.”

Their time on the court together was fast and furious, just as LeBron promised.

LeBron, who finished the night with 16 points, missed two long-range shots before dunking. Bronny had an early offensive rebound and missed a pass, and his first NBA jump shot moments later was a three-pointer that went just wide. Then, with 1:19 left in the second quarter, he called for one possession, which was met with one other ovation.

Bronny didn’t play again Lakers victory 110:103 over the Timberwolves.

“I tried not to focus on everything that was going on around me, but I tried to focus on coming into the game as a rookie and not trying to screw up,” Bronny said. “But yeah, I totally felt the energy and I appreciate Laker Nation for showing support for me and my dad.”

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After the final whistle commemorated the Lakers’ first win in the first game of LeBron’s seven seasons with the team, father and son also headed to the locker room together, but stopped in the tunnel to hug Savannah James, LeBron’s wife and Bronny’s mother. The entire family was in attendance to watch the story unfold – at least to have a good time younger sister Zhuri’s tenth birthday.

Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. were also on the field at the Lakers’ downtown stadium to witness the same history they made in Major League Baseball. The two sluggers played together in 51 games for the Seattle Mariners in 1990 and 1991 as baseball’s first father-son duo.

The Jameses and Griffeys met during the preliminary match warming up before some photos and a warm chat between two amazing families.

LeBron first talked about his dream of playing alongside Bronny a couple of years ago, when his oldest son was still in highschool. The dream became a reality when Bronny entered the draft as a young person after one college season and the Lakers grabbed him with the fifty fifth overall pick.

“I talked about it years ago and it’s pretty cool at this point,” LeBron said. “I do not know if it’s really going to hit us each for a minute, but after we actually sit down and cool down, it’s going to be really crazy. … But immediately, we still had work to do after we checked in. We didn’t want to turn it right into a circus. We didn’t want this to occur to us. We wanted to make it about the band.

LeBron and Bronny joined a small club of skilled athletes who played together on a father-son team. The Griffeys made history 34 years ago, and on September 14, 1990, they even scored a goal in the same match.

Hall-of-famer Tim Raines and his namesake’s son also achieved the feat with the Baltimore Orioles in 2001.

In hockey, Gordie Howe played alongside his two sons, Mark and Marty, for the Houston Eros and Team Canada of the WHA before sharing an NHL season with the Hartford Whalers in 1979-80, when Gordie was 51 years old.

While other family pairings on this list occurred late in their fathers’ careers, LeBron shows no signs of slowing down or regressing as he enters his record-setting twenty second NBA season.

Last 12 months, LeBron averaged over 25 points per game for his twentieth consecutive season and stays the most vital player for the Lakers, together with Anthony Davis, as they struggle to regain the form that won them the championship in 2020 and sent them to the Western Conference Finals in 2023

Bronny survived a cardiac arrest and open heart surgery in the summer of 2023, then played an abbreviated freshman season at the University of Southern California. He entered the draft anyway, and the Lakers were blissful to accomplish that he took advantage of the penultimate selection in a guard draft of 6 feet 2 inches.

LeBron spent the summer in Europe with Team USA, which won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, while Bronny played for the Lakers in the Summer League. They began practicing with the Lakers before training camp.

First the duo we played together in pre-seasonlogging 4 minutes during a game against Phoenix just outside Palm Springs earlier this month.

“It was a real pleasure,” LeBron said during Tuesday morning’s shootaround. “During the pre-season, training every day… introduces him to what professional life is all about and how to prepare every day as a professional.”

The Lakers were fully aware of the history they’d make with this mixture, and coach JJ Redick recently talked to the Jameses a couple of plan to make it occur early in the regular season.

The Griffeys’ presence likely made opening night inevitable, although Redick said the Lakers still wanted it to “happen organically, as the game went on.”

The Lakers are not looking for to speculate on how long Bronny will remain on their NBA roster. Los Angeles already has three other small guards on its roster, and Bronny likely needs regular playing time to elevate his game to consistent NBA levels.

These aspects collectively indicate that Bronny will likely soon join the G League’s South Bay Lakers affiliate. Both LeBron and Redick spoke positively about the South Bay team, saying that player development is a key a part of the Lakers organization.

Miami forward Kevin Love, who knew all of James’ children – Bronny, Bryce and Zhuri – from their days as LeBron’s teammate in Cleveland, said it was an “unbelievable moment” to see father and son playing together.

“I grew up a Mariners fan, so I got to see Griffey and then Griffey Sr. But this is a different situation because LeBron is still a top-five player in the league,” Love said. “This game, man. That’s why we have this TV deal ($76 billion). The plot and the things that happen like that is an unbelievable story. It’s really cool to see that.”

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AP basketball author Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed.

BOSTON – A recent evening with Jaylen Brown was a manifestation of the true power of sports.

We met in the hall of an apartment constructing in the city center. Dressed in head-to-toe black, with braids pulled back and his beard trimmed low, the Boston Celtics guard was heading to an event as vital as Tuesday night’s season opener for the Celtics, when they’ll receive their 2024 NBA championship rings. Brown was alone – with no bodyguard, agent, or entourage – as I followed him to a black Cadillac Escalade. We went to fulfill with 10 corporations from disadvantaged communities that Brown and teammate Jrue Holiday are helping to develop.

Brown is currently 27 years old and currently on top of the world. Last season, he destroyed the Dallas Mavericks in the championship series each ends of the floorhe cleared up criticism about his play and won Finals MVP. He has the look of a movie star, a song with a rap star, a contract with a superstar – but what brings him to life is making an impact in communities that lack equal opportunities.

“Honestly, I feel better,” Brown said after I asked him to match serving to playing basketball. “I feel answerable for being given my platform to assist influence other people. The only time I actually feel completely satisfied is when I’m attempting to help other people.

“Blacksmithing is like drinking water. It’s like breathing at this point. You don’t really feel anything anymore unless it’s big matches or big moments. But for the most part, I think my platform was only given so that I could help as many people as possible.”

In 2023, after signing a then-record $304 million contract, Brown said he would use his windfall to assist eliminate racial wealth gap. In August 2024, it launched Boston XChangewith the goal of generating $5 billion in generational wealth for marginalized communities, and founded the center in Oakland. Last Wednesday, October 16, Brown allowed me to take him with him to the meeting of the first group of XChange entrepreneurs – Boston Creator Incubator + Accelerator Cohort.

“Five billion is a great goal if you can achieve it,” Brown told me. “But even to proceed to push the boundaries forward. I feel the more relentless we’re in pushing change forward, that is the most significant thing. Keep pushing as a substitute of pretending all the things is high quality where it’s.

We jumped out of the truck and took the escalator to Grace by NiaAND Owned by a black woman supper club in the Boston Seaport District. There was no red carpet or famous guests, just a daily meeting cooks, clothing designers, hatters and more, with academic partners from Roxbury Community College, Suffolk University, Harvard Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Entrepreneurship.

Brown focuses on the “creative economy” – the individuals who make things. The first 10 entrepreneurs include: Dorchester Art Project Down Melanin for hair care down Chess Academy of Future Champions. Each company will receive as much as $100,000 over the next three years, in addition to mentorship, training and work space. Funding is provided by Brown; the JLH Social Impact Fundfounded by Holiday and his wife Lauren; and other philanthropic partners.

“Real joy comes from things like this,” Jrue told me. “Seeing people’s faces when they talk about what they like to do. They’re bustling around, talking about hats, talking about whether you need a cameraman, whether you need catering services, and so on. To me, it shows how powerful we are as athletes that we can help these people’s businesses flourish and make their dreams come true.”

“What’s so special about the Boston cohort is how many people got behind it,” said Lauren Holiday, a former member of the United States women’s national soccer team. “Harvard, MIT, Jaylen’s team, it feels bigger than anything we’ve done before, and it feels like this cohort is surrounded by so many options and so many people who support them.”

During his eight seasons in the NBA, Brown took a revolutionary stand on the establishment, whether that meant difficult police brutality against Black people or the exploitation of the sneaker industry. He positioned his latest sneaker brand as more disruptive statement than a profitable enterprise.

I wondered if Brown saw himself as a disruptor, but he said he didn’t.

“It doesn’t necessarily bother me because I understand the tone, but a lot of the things that I feel like I’ve invented or that I’m a part of are solution-based,” he said.

“By simply disturbing and then running away in the night, you have only disturbed something. Everything I offered was solutions-based, whether it was my shoe company, where I listened to the cries of athletes suffering from a lack of choice and their value being hidden by sports agencies and the shoe industry. And so I created another option. If you look at the wealth disparities here in Boston, people of color felt that it was extremely difficult to start a business and survive the hegemony that existed. So I started Boston XChange. I like to offer solutions.”

My Andscape colleague Bill Rhoden, a pioneering black journalist and writer of the definitive history of black athlete activism, recently reminded us how Brown meets a better standard of athletic greatness: “how fame and visibility are used to advance the cause of justice, respect and freedom beyond arena.” That’s what I saw last week as Brown spread his wealth, access and fame to his first group of entrepreneurs.

They won’t be the last.

“We are building a family,” Brown told me at the end of the evening. “We are building brotherhood, a community of sisters, a collective of people. People of color are coming from underserved communities and giving them those resources, but also building those breadcrumbs for the next generation.”

“Change doesn’t come from one initiative, one person or one entity. It comes from a bunch of people who find themselves committed to doing these items. So we sit up for working with more creators, more investors, and more initiatives in numerous cities and different states in the future. “It’s not about starting something new, but about highlighting what people have already done and using the power of influence – the power of sport.”

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Kansas City Chiefs will play the remainder of the season without their top two wide receivers. Their starting lineup is an injured reserve, and the Chiefs have serious problems with their offensive attack.

However, the Chiefs still have head coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and a defense that provided the foundation for an additional Super Bowl championship. Well, the other 31 NFL teams are second to none.

While the successful San Francisco 49ers have aspirations to be in the class of Kansas City, that will not be happening, as was evident on Sunday afternoon with the visiting Chiefs’ 28-18 victory at Levi’s Stadium.

Before selling out a crowd of 71,309, the Chiefs (6-0) continued their dominance over the 49ers (3-4), remaining undefeated in Mahomes’ five profession starts in the series. After Week 7, there is just one undefeated team left in the NFL – it relies in Kansas City, Missouri.

“You get the best of the best and that prepares you for the playoffs. That’s the most important thing,” Mahomes said. “Whenever you play in tense moments against great NFL teams, you see where you are at. We managed to find a way to win.”

And again, once they faced the Chiefs, the 49ers didn’t do it.

Such a giant failure against the Chiefs under Mahomes has confused the 49ers – and so they don’t even try to deny it.

“Obviously we want to beat the team that has had our number since I’ve been here,” said star defensive end Nick Bosa. “We just didn’t play well enough.”

Two of Kansas City’s victories over San Francisco got here in Super Bowls LIV and LVIII, adding to the hype surrounding the matchup during the regular season. Unlike Mahomes’ previous three starts against the 49ers, when the Chiefs had to rally from double-digit deficits, they controlled the game from the second quarter: Kansas City led by as many as 16 points (28-12) in the second quarter of the fourth quarter. With the game all but decided, San Francisco scored a cosmetic touchdown with just over a minute remaining.

Even with Mahomes’ passing total of just 154 yards, no touchdown passes and two interceptions, the Chiefs offense made enough plays to set the tone for the team. One play early in the fourth quarter was emblematic of how bad things had gone for the 49ers against the Chiefs in the Mahomes era.

Quarterback Brock Purdy’s one-yard touchdown run helped the 49ers cut the Chiefs’ lead to 14-12 early in the third quarter. This was no problem for the Chiefs. Late in the quarter and into the final quarter, Mahomes led a 13-play, 79-yard touchdown drive, punctuated by a roll by 49ers safety Malik Mustafa in the end zone for the final yard on fourth down.

Typically, safeties perform higher in these matchups against quarterbacks. Certainly, each time Mahomes records highlights of his profession, this play shall be a tie-breaker.

“I didn’t actually try to lower my arm. I attempted to absorb the impact because I knew I used to be going to be right in the end zone,” said Mahomes, who also had a 33-yard run three plays earlier that was price watching. “I had enough weight on me when he fell.

“So it wasn’t like I used to be necessarily trying to seek contact. I attempted to absorb it and get to the end zone, but it surely worked out well for me.

After Mahomes’ strong play in the first minute of the fourth quarter, the Chiefs were leading 21-12. Given the way the Chiefs defense was playing, it’d as well have been a 90-point lead.

Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is second to none at his job, and on Sunday, Spagnuolo was cooking as usual again.

Purdy had three interceptions and accomplished only 17 of 31 passes. Although the Chiefs only sacked Purdy once, they pressed him in the pocket when it mattered most. After Mahomes’ touchdown, the Chiefs’ advantage increased, the 49ers drove from the 30-yard line to the Chiefs’ 5-yard line.

On third-and-5, Purdy dropped back to pass and was hit by defensive end George Karlaftis as he began to throw. Safety Jaden Hicks intercepted a pass in the end zone.

Purdy said: “I definitely need to play better, just with my shots and some of my decisions. It’s quite simple.”

Attention to detail is vital in the Chiefs defense. Spagnuolo has a watch for it and “they will always focus on the details,” said Karlaftis, who was the only Chiefs sacker. “Smoothing out, making adjustments and all the things we’d like to improve (every week). I watch it, learn from it and turn out to be a greater team.

The Chiefs gained possession with 9:29 left in the game. With only 3:16 left on the game clock, wide receiver Mecole Hardman made a right-to-left move, took a pass from Mahomes and scored on an 18-yard touchdown to put the Chiefs up.

Hardman, who also returned a punt 55 yards, enjoys playing at Levi’s Stadium. When the teams met here in Week 7 of the 2022-2023 season, Hardman scored three touchdowns (two rushing, one receiving). Hardman also caught an extra time pass in last season’s Super Bowl, giving the Chiefs their third Super Bowl championship in five seasons.

“I think it’s one of those things that happens,” Hardman replied when asked about his success against the 49ers.

The 49ers defense performed poorly against the Chiefs’ running game on Sunday. The Chiefs rushed for 184 yards (for a mean of 4.7 yards per carry). Running back Kareem Hunt threw for 78 yards and two touchdowns.

“They know how to win in a lot of different ways,” Bosa said. “We were hoping for more opportunities to get him (Mahomes) in the second half. To do this, however, you must stop running. We didn’t do that.”

Once again, against a team that dominated them, the 49ers simply didn’t perform well enough. After five straight losses to the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, the 49ers appear no closer to solving their long-running nightmare.