Bronny James will make history when he steps onto the court with his father, LeBron, and the Los Angeles Lakers, and we now know what number he’ll be wearing.
The Lakers announced Friday, a day after selecting the 19-year-old James with the 55th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, that James will wear No. 9 in the purple and gold. His name will be listed as “James Jr.” on the back of his jersey.
James wore No. 0 at Sierra Canyon High School and No. 6 for one season at USC. The latter is the same number his father wore with the Lakers and Miami Heat, but it is no longer available in the NBA after the NBA retired the number in honor of the late Bill Russell. LeBron currently wears No. 23.
Fifteen different Lakers have worn the number 9, including Nick Van Exel, Matt Barnes, Luol Deng and Rajon Rondo. Van Exel, in particular, seemed excited to see Bronny wearing his old number.
The Lakers’ top draft pick was Dalton Knecht, selected 17th overall out of the University of Tennessee, who will wear the number 4. Knecht’s name is pronounced “connect,” making the selection an easy pun.
Bronny James will wear number 9 for the Lakers. (Photo by Tearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
James comes to the Lakers looking to make history as the younger brother of the NBA’s first on-court father-son duo and with a lot to prove. He enrolled at USC as a top-50 player but had his collegiate debut postponed after suffering cardiac arrest last July.
When he took the court for the Trojans, he primarily came off the bench for one of the most disappointing teams in college basketball, appearing in 25 games, starting six of them, and averaging 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 19.3 minutes per game.
Typically, a player with that kind of pedigree wouldn’t garner much draft interest, but James is clearly no ordinary player: There’s always talk about the power of the gene pool when it comes to the children of NBA players, but the Lakers’ drafting of James is widely seen as more the result of his father’s machinations than any actual basketball decision.
