A hollywood ending, p.33
A Hollywood Ending, page 33
“Man Bronny definitely better than some of these cats I’ve been watching on league pass today,” LeBron tweeted in March 2023, near the end of Bronny’s senior year of high school. “Shit lightweight hilarious .”
At that point, few around the NBA agreed. Scouts and analysts liked Bronny’s game and appreciated how, despite growing up in a fishbowl, he appeared to be a pretty normal, humble, even-keeled teenager. But in the eyes of most evaluators—the lone exception being ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, who, in a February 2023 mock draft projected him as a top-10 pick—Bronny was nothing more than a borderline draft pick.
In May 2023, Bronny accepted a scholarship to USC. The family’s plan was for him to play one season and then declare for the 2024 NBA draft. Whether or not the rest of the world believed Bronny was ready didn’t matter. To LeBron, there was no doubt.
All that got pushed to the back burner on one July morning. While doing some cardio drills in the USC gym, Bronny blacked out and fell to the floor. He had suffered cardiac arrest. Trainers performed CPR, and an ambulance rushed Bronny to the hospital. He was later diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.
Bronny returned to the court in January but struggled finding his footing, averaging just 4.8 points off the bench. People close to him pointed to the cardiac episode he’d suffered over the summer, and many talent evaluators were sympathetic to the impact of suffering such a traumatic event. But the reality remained that Bronny was an undersized wing shooting an ugly 26.7 percent from deep. It wasn’t that scouts and analysts were rooting against him. They just didn’t see him becoming a legitimate NBA player. LeBron, however, remained resolute. “He could play for us right now, easy,” he told Austin Reaves after one game in January, loud enough for all the reporters in the locker room to hear.
As the 2024 draft approached, Klutch got to work. The good news was that LeBron and Kluch weren’t the only ones interested in seeing Bronny wear a Lakers uniform. As the Bronny storyline had picked up steam over the previous year, Jeanie spoke often in public about how she remembered watching a hockey game as a teenager featuring her family’s LA Kings and the Hartford Whalers. That night, the Whalers put out a lineup featuring the future Hall of Famer Gordie Howe and one of his sons. “It was just one of those great moments and a great thing to watch,” Jeanie said on The Rich Eisen Show in October 2022. The Lakers weren’t going to waste their first-round pick on Bronny, but they also owned pick No. 55. Players selected there rarely made the NBA. Maybe Bronny could defy the odds; if not, the Lakers would still make history and, at the same time, appease LeBron, who had a player option.
In the meantime, Klutch was doing everything it could to push Bronny to the Lakers. When speaking with other teams, Rich Paul insisted that Bronny was a first-round talent. When asked whether Bronny would be open to spending time in the G League, he would say yes but qualify that by adding that only when the NBA team had a day off. All of it seemed to be a way of scaring off other potential suitors. Later, Paul doubled down on this approach. If you take him, he’s going to play in Australia, he’d told inquiring teams. He then gave former Warriors GM Bob Myers, who was working the draft for ESPN, permission to share that message on the air during Day 2 of the draft.
No one knew whether Paul was bluffing. But based on his threats, no team was willing to draft Bronny hoping LeBron would leave the Lakers to join him.
The 54th pick was announced. The Lakers were now on the clock. Pelinka, seated next to Redick, called Paul, who put Bronny on the phone.
“Bronny, you got Rob Pelinka here, Coach Redick,” he said. “I think first and foremost, you’ve worked incredibly hard, man. You’ve put in a ton of work…that means a lot to us.
“I think second to that, you’re a player of high character, and a person of high character, and that is valued at the Lakers. And so, it’s important for Coach Redick and I to let you know that those qualities really stand out. And so, the Lakers are gonna draft you with the 55th pick in the draft, and I just wanted to let you know.”
Redick leaned over.
“Bronny, this is JJ. I just wanted to say congrats, man. Your hard work has paid off, you’re gonna have a long NBA career, and I can’t wait to coach you, man. Congrats.”
“Thank you, Coach,” Bronny said. “Appreciate it, Coach.”
“We’ll see you soon, Bronny,” Pelinka said. “The work begins.”
“Yes, sir,” he said.
Pelinka hung up. Everyone in the room applauded.
After hearing NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum announce the pick on TV, LeBron’s family and closest friends, watching together in Manhattan, did the same. Savannah handed Bronny a Lakers hat. Tears streamed down his cheeks.
One week later, LeBron, after declining his player option, signed a new one-plus-one deal with the Lakers.
* * *
• • •
During training camp, LeBron looked happier than he had in years. He made Bronny wear a holographic backpack as part of the team’s rookie hazing. After practices, he and Bronny worked together, getting up extra shots.
“Just pure joy, to be honest,” LeBron told reporters in September. “To be able to come to work every day, put in the hard work with your son every day and see him continue to grow.”
LeBron and the Lakers decided that the best course of action would be to have him and Bronny play together in the first game of the season and then move on. The NBA, recognizing the magnitude of the moment—and level of interest in the LeBron-Bronny storyline—slotted the Lakers onto its opening-night schedule, which featured two games on national TV. The evening started with the Celtics raising a banner representing title No. 18, which they had won in June, breaking their tie with the Lakers, to the rafters. They then throttled the Knicks, 132–109. In a stark contrast, the Lakers were on TV for a reason that had nothing to do with winning. And yet, like so many other nights throughout NBA history, the spotlight belonged to them.
On Bronny’s first possession, the Timberwolves set a screen to isolate him on Julius Randle; Randle backed him into the paint and buried a jumper. On the other end of the court, Bronny missed a tip-in chance and a catch-and-shoot three off a feed from his dad. After two and a half minutes of action, Redick subbed Bronny out.[*] The highlight of the stint had been LeBron beating his man backdoor on the baseline for a thunderous, one-handed slam, a mind-boggling feat, considering the dunk was thrown down by someone so old that his son was on the court.
In the locker room after the game—a 110–103 Lakers victory—the players doused Redick in water to celebrate his first career win. The room had quieted by the time the media was let in, but the mood remained upbeat. Davis and LeBron talked football with a group of reporters. The Minnesota Vikings were coming to LA, and LeBron said he was thinking about going to the game. “So I can see [Justin] Jefferson,” he said, referring to the team’s star wide receiver. He talked about how Usher had recently held a concert at the nearby Intuit Dome. ESPN’s Malika Andrews mentioned that Billy Joel had performed there, too.
“Hell nah!” LeBron said. “I ain’t listening to no Billy Joel.”
Ta’Nisha Cooper, the Lakers flack, came by to ask LeBron which family photos the team could post from its official social media accounts.
“Yeah, that’s beautiful,” LeBron said, looking at one.
“What about the one with Savannah?” she asked.
“You have to ask her,” he said.
A few stalls over, Bronny was getting dressed. He and his father didn’t look at each other until it was time to head to the media room for their postgame press conference.
Bronny followed LeBron out.
Speaking to reporters, LeBron tried putting the evening’s emotions into words. He talked about how special it was to begin his day by wishing his daughter a happy tenth birthday before she went to school; and how incredible it was to then come in to work and see his son; and how the moment that he and Bronny checked in together would be one he’d never forget, “no matter how my memory may fade as I get older”; and how incredible it was for a day featuring all that to then also end with a win.
“Everything was just great today,” LeBron said. “Everything.”
Skip Notes
* My favorite part of the whole thing was how, when LeBron and Bronny entered the game, TNT cameras panned over to Bryce to show his reaction. He looked up, smiled, and then, seemingly unimpressed by his dad and older brother doing something literally no one in history had ever done before, returned to scrolling TikTok.
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The Luka Lakers
They might have had a new coach in place, but as the 2025 trade deadline approached, the Lakers’ season was, to quote a famous baseball legend, feeling like déjà vu all over again. Once again, Pelinka, seemingly content to wait out LeBron and then rebuild after he retired, was holding on to future draft picks instead of using them to upgrade the roster. Once again, LeBron and Klutch were annoyed and trying to pressure Pelinka into making a move.
They had started the campaign in mid-January when, after a loss to the Clippers, LeBron was asked about the team’s margin for error. “That’s not how our team was constructed,” he told reporters. “We have to play close to perfect basketball.” Later that week, during a sit-down interview with ESPN’s Shams Charania, Davis took the baton. “I think we need another big,” he told Charania, noting that the Lakers had won the 2020 title with him playing alongside true centers like Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee.
What Davis failed to point out, though, was that the Lakers’ best lineups featured him at center. And what LeBron seemed to be ignoring was that, despite his gaudy numbers, his own play had been holding the team back. Considering he was forty, it was understandable, but his defensive effort was at an all-time low and some of his teammates felt that at times he was hijacking the offense. For the first time in his career, LeBron’s team was statistically better with him off the court.
Pelinka had addressed some of these issues a month earlier in a savvy trade with the Nets. Out went D’Angelo Russell and his inefficient gunning. In came Dorian Finney-Smith, a versatile forward and stout defender. After the trade, despite Davis’s and LeBron’s comments, the team’s play had improved. Redick had the group moving the ball, playing hard, and defending at an elite level. Entering a Saturday-night showdown in New York City with the Knicks, the Lakers had won eight out of nine. A championship still seemed unlikely, but at the least LeBron would spend his 22nd NBA season competing for a team that felt like it had a purpose.
What neither he nor almost anyone else knew was that Pelinka was working on something even bigger. A deal that, if completed, would solidify his legacy and give LeBron, Jeanie, and Lakers fans everything they wanted.
* * *
• • •
A few weeks earlier, Pelinka had traveled with the Lakers to Dallas. While there, an old friend reached out. Pelinka had first met Nico Harrison in the early 2000s. Harrison was a junior executive with Nike at the time and trying to sign Kobe to a shoe deal. He attended every Lakers home game during the 2002–03 season and, that summer, landed Kobe with a five-year, $40 million offer. The contract was negotiated by Pelinka. From that point on, Harrison was Kobe’s primary contact and closest confidant at Nike. Through that relationship, he and Pelinka developed a connection of their own.
In 2021, the Mavericks hired Harrison to be their GM. He took over a team that had one of the league’s premier players, Luka Dončić, a Slovenian prodigy entering just his fourth NBA season and already widely considered one of the five best players in the league. Dončić was a brilliant passer who could bury shots from any spot and any angle. He was also 6-foot-6 and thick, which made him nearly impossible to guard. Those defenders quick enough to keep up with him were usually too small to handle his size. Those defenders big enough to handle his size were usually too stone-footed to keep up. Dončić had spent his first six NBA seasons dominating opponents in a way few players ever had and was coming off one in which he had led the league in scoring (33.9 points per game), finished third in MVP voting, nearly averaged a triple-double (9.8 assists and 9.2 rebounds), and carried the Mavericks to the finals. He was universally recognized as a once-in-a-generation talent.
Not by Harrison, though. He’d become fixated on Dončić’s flaws, on the way he’d coast on defense and argue with referees mid-play and always seemed to put on weight during breaks. Despite the recent trip to the finals, Harrison no longer believed that Dončić could serve as the cornerstone of a championship team, not after seeing him respond to a disappointing finals performance—the Mavericks fell to the Celtics in five games—by reporting to training camp the following fall out of shape and then, during the Mavericks’ Christmas Day game, suffering his fourth calf strain in three years. Which was why, when the Lakers came to town, Harrison had asked Pelinka about getting a coffee.
The two met up at a café about a half mile from American Airlines Center, where the Lakers were set to face the Mavericks that night. Pelinka wore a black hoodie; Harrison, dressed in a black beanie and dark zip-up vest, opted for a more incognito look. Which made sense. He was about to propose what would become one of the most shocking, controversial, and, eventually, ridiculed trades in sports history, one that broke every cardinal rule about team-building in the NBA. Superstars like Dončić were the most valuable commodity in the sport. NBA history had shown that without one, winning a title was nearly impossible. And yet here Harrison was, preparing to ask Pelinka whether the Lakers would be open to a Dončić for Anthony Davis swap.
Over coffee, Harrison explained the situation. He told Pelinka that the Mavericks weren’t shopping Dončić—he needed to keep things quiet and preserve the relationship in case he failed to complete a deal—and that he was reaching out to the Lakers and no one else.[*1] Harrison wanted to turn the Mavericks into an elite defensive team and believed Davis, one of the league’s top defensive players, could help him do so. That Davis was thirty-one and had a long injury history didn’t seem to matter.
The two executives went back and forth. Pelinka told Harrison he was intrigued and that he’d be in touch. After the meeting, he called Jeanie and relayed the conversation. “She was extraordinarily excited and hopeful that we could get to the end,” Pelinka recalled. He and Harrison spent the next three weeks hammering out the details. What other players would be included? How many first-round picks would the Lakers have to give up? Which assets could the Lakers hold on to? All the while, Pelinka, utilizing the same playbook he’d used during the Hurley recruitment, kept the circle tight, out of respect for Harrison’s request, but also understanding that a closed auction worked to his advantage. There were numerous teams out there with the ability to top the Lakers’ package, and who no doubt would if they learned that Dončić was available.
By January 31, a Friday night, the Lakers and Mavericks had agreed on the outline of the deal. In addition to Davis, the Lakers would send Dallas one of their two tradeable first-round picks along with Max Christie, a young and talented 3-and-D wing. Considering that players far less talented and accomplished than Dončić had fetched packages of four first-round picks plus other assets, Pelinka was getting a steal. He’d somehow convinced Harrison that, since the Mavericks were preventing Pelinka from discussing Dončić’s future with his agent, the Lakers were taking on too much risk to part with another asset, be it a first-round pick, Austin Reaves, or rookie Dalton Knecht.
For salary cap reasons, though, the Lakers had to first complete a separate trade with the Jazz. But before the Jazz could do that, they had to complete yet a different deal with the Clippers. And for that, the Clippers needed to receive sign-off from the agent of Patty Mills, whom they were getting from Utah.[*2] The problem was that Mills’s agent, CAA’s Steven Heumann, was observing Shabbat and offline. This meant that all parties had to wait until an hour after sundown on Saturday night, when the Lakers were taking on the Knicks. In the meantime, Pelinka and Harrison agreed to keep the details quiet. Neither side wanted to risk anything leaking until all the necessary paperwork was completed.
* * *
• • •
The Lakers stepped onto the Madison Square Garden floor the next night and put on one of their best performances of the season, cruising to a 128–112 win. LeBron, energized by the Broadway stage, looked explosive and spry. In yet another turn-back-the-clock performance, he dropped 33 points and recorded his 10th triple-double of the season.
In the locker room afterward, LeBron talked about how excited he was to go out to dinner with his wife, who was waiting for him in the hallway. Beside her was Rich Paul, laughing with various reporters and Klutch COO Fara Leff and unaware that one of his top clients was on the verge of being traded. Pelinka, meanwhile, had remained in LA, where he was finalizing the deal. At around 9 p.m. on the West Coast, Dončić’s agent, Bill Duffy, was informed that Dončić was headed to the Lakers. A few minutes later, the details reached ESPN’s Charania. “I thought my phone was hacked,” he’d later say. Soon after, he broke the news. Most people around the NBA, upon seeing Charania’s post and finding it inconceivable that the Mavericks would actually trade Dončić, also assumed it was some sort of prank. Charania was forced to send out a follow-up post confirming the report.
Davis, who had stayed back in LA to nurse an abdominal strain, was settling in to watch a movie with his wife when Pelinka called to share the news. Pelinka then called LeBron, who was out to dinner in New York City with his wife and others, including Paul. Bronny, meanwhile, who was not with his dad, shared Charania’s post in the players’ group chat and asked if it was real. Davis then jumped in. “Did these n****s just trade me?” he wrote. He wished the group good luck and left the chat.
