LeBron James, an All-Star combo forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, has a $51.4 million player option for the 2024-25 season. That would mark James’ 22nd season as a professional, tying for the franchise record. His son, Bronny James, a freshman combo guard for the USC Trojans, has declared for the 2024 NBA draft while also utilizing the college transfer portal to maintain his NCAA eligibility.

LeBron has long harbored a desire to compete in the NBA alongside his son. Despite Bronny’s unimpressive rookie campaign and current status as a low-considered draft pick, that could occur as early as 2024-25. What will LeBron do next?

Bill Simmons, of The Ringer, elaborated to Ryen Russillo on a recent episode of his indispensable basketball podcast The Bill Simmons Podcast as to why he believes LeBron James might abandon the Lakers in order to play with Bronny.

“My guess is that, if the kid ends up being in the draft, he’s going to want to play with him, and that will trump any other desire he has as a basketball player,” according to Simmons.

“This offseason, [his priority is] ‘getting the most money I can, hopefully out of the Lakers, they take care of me the way they took care of Kobe, maybe there’s some sort of option thing on the third year –‘” Russillo commenced by conjecturing on James’s perspective regarding the summer.

“Or second year!” Simmons buoyantly ascended. “It could be as much as $100 million for two years, but he has the option to withdrаw after the first year, so they can manipulate the deal that way.”

“I just am looking forward to it because if they are on the same team and they do play together next year, it’ll be the first time we’ve had the country just cheering on nepotism,” Russillo commented.

Undoubtedly, the Lakers could have selected Bronny with their own second-round pick in the current NBA selection…