NBA

Bronny James reflected on playing with his father, LeBron, on the Los Angeles Lakers throughout his rookie season in the NBA.

"It's a blessing," James told Fox Sports' Melissa Rohlin. "Being able to learn from him, not only as a player, but as a dad. It's a different type of relationship. I try to take full advantage of it because it's something that a lot of people can't have. It was an amazing experience for me. And I'm looking forward to learning more from him, if he's still here or not, either way. But I'm just looking forward to it."

The younger James also confirmed that he wants to keep the pairing together moving forward.

"Yeah, for sure," James said, per Rohlin. "However long he can come back for, it's always a pleasure being around him. He's locked in. The stuff he does for his body and the preparation and stuff like that, I want to take full advantage of it."

LeBron has a $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season.

He was noncommittal surrounding his NBA future after the Lakers were eliminated in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night, though.

"I don't know," LeBron said, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "I don't have an answer to that. Something I'll sit down with my family, my wife and my support group and kind of just talk through it and see what happens. And just have a conversation with myself on how long I want to continue to play."

As for Bronny, he signed a four-year contract worth $7.9 million with Los Angeles after the team selected him with the No. 55 overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft.

He appeared in 27 regular-season games as a rookie, primarily operating outside of head coach JJ Redick's rotation. Bronny and LeBron shared the floor for 10 total minutes across three games, via NBA.com.

Bronny averaged 2.3 points and 0.8 assists in 6.7 minutes per game, shooting 31.3 percent from the field.

The 20-year-old also appeared in 11 regular-season contests with the South Bay Lakers, Los Angeles' G League affiliate.

Bronny fared much better in extended minutes, recording 21.9 points, 5.4 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game on 44.0/38.0/81.5 shooting splits with South Bay.

As he begins preparing for his second season in the NBA, he's looking forward to possibly playing with his father once again.

LeBron James has a big challenge for his two sons.

Per Melissa Rohlin of Fox Sports, after breaking the NBA's all-time scoring record in February 2023, he asked whether Bronny or Bryce would be the one to break it.

"Which one of y'all is gonna try to break my record?" James asked in the locker room after breaking the scoring record.

Asking anyone to break James' scoring record is a tall task, let alone two players who, at the time, weren't even in the league yet. Since proposing the challenge to his sons, Bronny, his eldest, overcame a health scare at USC and was ultimately drafted last summer.

Bronny struggled to find his place early on in Summer League, but ended up making strides towards being an NBA regular. While he appeared in just 27 games for the Lakers and averaged just 6.7 minutes per contest, he had a solid season in the G League.

In 11 appearances for the South Bay Lakers, Bronny averaged 21.9 points, 5.4 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game.

As for Bryce, he's still working his way toward joining his father and older brother in the league. He's currently in his senior year at Sierra Canyon but is committed to play for Arizona next season. Bryce is considered to be a 3-star prospect by 247Sports' Composite.

Even if Bronny has a breakout year next year and Bryce turns into a solid NBA player, it's hard to imagine either can best their father's scoring record. James is at 42,184 points and seemingly still has a few more years left in him.

While no record is unbreakable, James' will likely stand for a long time.

Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick is focused on maximizing the potential of superstar Luka Dončić following the team's playoff elimination on Wednesday night.

"Our first conversation was that he wants to be coached, he wants to be held accountable ... I want to bring out the best version of Luka," Redick said Thursday, per team reporter Mike Trudell. "That’s what he wants from me. That's the partnership going forward. That's the expectation, the baseline of what we're trying to do. Let’s try to bring out the best version of Luka and hopefully win a championship doing that.”

Dončić ending the 2024-25 season as a member of the Lakers may have seemed unlikely when the year started, but Los Angeles ended up acquiring him in a shocking blockbuster trade involving the Dallas Mavericks on Feb. 2.

While the 26-year-old dealt with a calf strain in Dallas and underwent a change of scenery in the middle of the season, it's still worth noting that his production during his 2024-25 campaign represented a step down from his exceptional career as of late.

Dončić averaged 28.2 points per game on the season, his lowest scoring average since the 2020-21 season. He also shot 45.0 percent from the field, his worst percentage since his rookie year in 2019.

The five-time All-Star also connected on a mere 43.8 percent of his field goals as a member of the Lakers following the trade. The team was eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games during the first round of the 2025 playoffs.

Given the age of Dončić as well as his tumultuous season, it's fair to assume that he'll make improvements in certain areas of his game with a full offseason in Los Angeles under his belt.

Redick also confirmed that he'll be focused on helping Dončić continue to elevate his performance.

Don't expect to see Tyrese Haliburton's father, John, at Indiana Pacers playoff games in the near future following his confrontation with Giannis Antetokounmpo after Tuesday's contest.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported Thursday that Indiana's front office decided John Haliburton should not attend the team's home or road games for an indefinite amount of time. Charania noted John Haliburton "was understanding and accepted the choice."

There has been plenty of contrition after the confrontation that overshadowed the thrilling end to Game 5 of Indiana's first-round series win over the Bucks.

Tyrese Haliburton went on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday and said of his father (45-second mark): "His actions were out of line. I apologized to Giannis, he apologized to Giannis. … There's no excuse and no place for that. I think that he understands that. I think he just got caught up in the moment."

John Haliburton also took to social media to publicly apologize to Antetokounmpo:

However, he also spoke to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star and denied that he swore at the Bucks star and added he "was wrong for going on the basketball court because I shouldn't have ever done that."

As for Antetokounmpo, he addressed it during a lengthy postgame press conference in which he explained that people should be humble in victory. He also called John Haliburton's behavior "unacceptable."

It was quite the ending to a series that saw Indiana eliminate Milwaukee in the first round for the second straight year.

Damian Lillard was sidelined with a torn Achilles, but it seemed like Antetokounmpo was going to do enough to preserve his team's season with a triple-double of 30 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists. However, Haliburton continuously provided an answer when the Pacers' back was against the wall.

He scored four points in the team's final two possessions of regulation and then converted an and-1 down the stretch of overtime. After a Gary Trent Jr. turnover, the two-time All-Star then made what proved to be the game-winning layup.

That set off the celebration that included his father confronting Antetokounmpo in a move that will prevent him from seeing the Pacers take on the Cleveland Cavaliers in person during the second round.

The Phoenix Suns took an important step in what figures to be a busy offseason Thursday.

Phoenix announced it promoted vice president of player programming Brian Gregory to the general manager position as previous GM James Jones transitioned to a senior adviser role.

Gregory will be under the spotlight during the offseason as the team looks to hire a new head coach and perhaps even trade Kevin Durant.

That Phoenix went with Gregory isn't a particular surprise.

NBA insider Marc Stein reported Wednesday that promoting the vice president was "an emerging option" since "Gregory already has a significant voice in Suns draft strategy and is highly regarded by owner Mat Ishbia."

Gregory was an assistant coach at Michigan State when Ishbia was a player and, as NBA insider Jake Fischer pointed out, is already quite familiar with college scouting ahead of the draft:

Phoenix hired Gregory ahead of the 2024-25 campaign after his lengthy career as a college basketball coach.

He was the head coach of Dayton for eight seasons from 2003-11, the head coach of Georgia Tech for five seasons from 2011-16 and the head coach of South Florida for six seasons from 2017-23.

In all, he went a combined 327-287 during his three stops.

As for Jones, he was the GM since 2019 and helped build the roster that reached the 2021 NBA Finals. However, Phoenix was arguably the most disappointing team in the league this past season as it failed to even reach the Western Conference play-in tournament at 36-46 and has now fired its head coach in three consecutive campaigns.

One of Gregory's first tasks will be finding a replacement for the fired Mike Budenholzer, who lasted just one season after Frank Vogel lasted just one season as the replacement for the fired Monty Williams.

Then there is the question of Durant, who will surely be in plenty of trade rumors during the offseason after the team failed to reach the playoffs this season. 

The 36-year-old has just one more season remaining on his deal, and trading him could be the fastest way for the front office to facilitate a quick rebuild around Devin Booker.

It will be quite the monumental task for Gregory as he begins his first GM role in the NBA.

The 2024-25 postseason may be the last ride for the Boston Celtics, at least with this current roster configuration.

As ESPN's Shams Charania noted during an appeared on Thursday's The Pat McAfee Show, the Celtics may be forced to make some changes from a financial perspective:

"I can tell you, the rest of the league is bracing for some level of change to come to the Celtics roster this offseason. Sources have been telling me for weeks now that the Celtics will be exploring trade options in the offseason. This iteration is just not going to be sustainable for this team. And no one around the organization, from players to staffers, would be surprised if there are changes coming to this roster. When you think about the new collective bargaining agreement, there are restrictions that come with trades, there are restrictions that come with giving up draft picks, that's all stuff that they're dealing with right now. They have five players right now scheduled to make $28 million or more next season. That's a league record. They would have a salary bill of $500 million. That's league history. I think the Celtics knew when they traded for Jrue Holiday, they traded for Kristaps Porziņģis, they'd be staring this in the face this summer."

There's basically no way the Celtics will part with either Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, barring one of them pushing heavily for a trade, so there's little point discussing either when it comes to a potential roster rework.

Nobody else in Boston is untouchable, however.

There's a pretty strong argument to be made that the Celtics should try to keep Derrick White at all costs. He's four years younger than Jrue Holiday, less injury prone than Kristaps Porziņģis and was Boston's third-best player in the first-round series against the Orlando Magic, averaging 17.2, 4.8 assists, 4.8 rebounds and a steal per game. He's also due to make less next season ($28.1 million) than both Holiday ($32.4 million) and Porziņģis ($30.7 million).

He may also be the player other teams would most covet of that trio, however.

There's no doubt that Porziņģis is talented and impactful when healthy, but staying on the court has remained a struggle. He'll also be a free agent following the 2025-26 season, and expiring contracts are generally easier to move. Teams hoping to accumulate cap space for the 2026 offseason might be willing to take him on.

Holiday, meanwhile, remains an excellent defensive player, but his contract—he has two years remaining alongside a $37.2 million player option in 2027-28—might be a bit less ideal for teams to take on. On the other hand, his game should age pretty well, predicated on defense and playmaking, and other contenders might be interested in his services.

NBA reporter Jake Fischer reported in March that "league figures" were monitoring Porziņģis and Holiday entering this summer as players who could potentially be moved. Obviously, the trade market will dictate that process, but it wouldn't be surprising in the slightest if neither player remained in Boston beyond this summer.