LeBron’s near-triple-double

LeBron James put up 26 points, 11 assists, and 8 rebounds on April 9 while the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors 119-103, and the clips took off because the stat line looked like it came from a player a decade younger. He shot 11-for-17 from the field and 3-for-5 from three-point range in the win. (nba.com) (espn.com) (sports.yahoo.com) One play gave the game a second life online: Bronny James threw LeBron an alley-oop for a dunk, flipping the usual basketball family script in one possession. ESPN’s game page labeled it the first son-to-father assist in National Basketball Association history. (espn.com) That moment landed because the James family had already crossed one historic line earlier in the season. On opening night, LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to appear in a National Basketball Association game together. (apnews.com) (nba.com) They added another first last week, but in reverse order. The National Basketball Association said LeBron assisted Bronny on a three-pointer against the Brooklyn Nets, calling it the league’s first father-son assist. (nba.com) So the Warriors game turned the pairing into a two-way piece of league history: first father-to-son, then son-to-father. That is why a regular-season alley-oop drew the kind of reaction usually reserved for playoff highlights. (nba.com) (espn.com) The box score mattered too, because this was not a ceremonial cameo from a 41-year-old star. The Associated Press report on the game said James controlled the night with scoring, playmaking, and rebounding while Stephen Curry did not play for Golden State. (sports.yahoo.com) That combination is what made the clips travel so far: one game delivered both a sharp Lakers win and a family milestone the league had never logged before. By the end of the night, LeBron had another near-triple-double, Bronny had another place in the record book, and the Lakers had a 16-point win over a rival. (espn.com) (sports.yahoo.com)